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BV  825  .OV   1873 

S^°^^.'  ^'rine  Of  tbe  Lord's 
The  doctrine 

supper 


THE    DOOTEIIfE 


THE   LORD'S  SUPPER. 


THE    DOCTRINE 


THE  LOKD'S   SUPPER, 


AS  SET  FORTH  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  CONCORD, 


CEITICAHT  EXAMINED,  AND  ITS  FAtlACT  DEMONSTRATED. 


RET.  J.   B.   GROSS. 


"  Kfinn  dio  Wahrhcit  vororbt  werden,  wio  irdischer  Bcsitz  ?  Oder  angozogcn 
werden,  wio  ein  Gewand?" 


PHTLADELrniA: 

J.  B.   LIPPINCOTT    &    CO. 
1873. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872,  by 
J.  B.   LIPPINCOTT   &   CO., 

In  the  OflRce  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  "Washington. 


DEDIOATIGK 


That  which  is  essential  to  the  salvation  of  mankind  must 
admit  of  being  readily  understood,  and — if  not  easily,  at  least 
successfully — carried  out,  by  all  that  have  the  gift  of  ordinary 
intelligence  or  common  sense,  and  faithfully  make  use  of  the 
appointed  means  of  grace,  as  set  forth  in  the  word  of  God :  a 
qualification  of  which  we  must  never  lose  sight.  The  idea 
that  God  has  founded  a  system  of  redemption  for  the  benefit 
of  mankind  which  only  priests  or  hierarchs— that  is,  men 
claiming  to  be  especially  authorized  or  Divinely  appointed — 
can  accurately  understand  and  render  intelligible  to  the  rest 
of  the  human  race,  is  preposterous,  and  at  once  an  insult  to 
God  and  an  outrage  against  common  sense. 

What  mainly  causes  the  Scriptures  to  be  so  often  misun- 
derstood, or  understood  only  with  great  labor  and  difficulty, 
is  the  extensively  controlling  influence  which  human  creeds, 
or  the  exclusive  doctrines  of  sectism,  exercise  over  the 
human  mind,  which,  thus  warped  and  debased,  is  no  longer 
competent  to  interpret  the  word  of  God  agreeably  to  its  true 
import  or  in  conformity  to  common  sense  principles.  Chris- 
tians at  this  moment,  and  in  this  nineteenth  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  though  they  are  not  generally  aware  of  the 
humiliating  fact,  are  too  frequently  the  followers  of  men  in- 
stead of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  of  "  the  commandments  of 
men,"  taught  as  saving  truths,  instead  of  the  Divine  teachings 

1*  (V) 


vi  DEDICATION. 

of  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God.  Owing  to  this  criminal 
practice,  this  high-handed  invasion  of  the  rights  of  conscience, 
the  Gospel  of  the  Saviour  is  virtually  superseded  by  man's 
devices,  and  the  poor,  deluded  laity  is  often  made  to  believe  a 
myth  instead  of  the  Divine  truth.  This  is  sometimes  done 
designedly  for  the  good,  as  may  be  supposed,  of  plebeian 
souls ;  but  in  the  Protestant  Church  a  practice  so  base  must 
be  presumed  to  be  rare  in  proportion  to  the  ascendency  of 
liberal  principles  and  the  general  diifusion  of  education. 

Much  that  the  Bible  teaches  is  not  absolutely  essential  to 
salvation,  but  is  to  be  regarded  as  adventitious,  and  designed 
only  as  a  vehicle  of  instruction  at  the  time  to  which  it  refers : 
as  the  ivrapper  in  which  the  Gospel  has  been  clothed  and 
handed  down  to  future  ages.  It  is  emphatically  this  unes- 
sential part  of  the  Scriptures  which  especially  claims  the 
labors  and  requires  the  skill  of  the  learned  commentator,  but 
which  has  no  direct  or  vital  bearing  on  the  redemptive  virtue 
of  the  Divine  word.  Christ's  hearers  were  in  an  eminent  de- 
gree the  unlearned,  the  common  people,  or,  in  the  touching 
phrase,  "The  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel";  but,  unless 
he  spoke  in  parables  or  in  unusual  figurative  language, — 
which  he  at  once  explained  and  thus  rendered  intelligible, — 
his  illiterate  hearers  understood  him  quite  well ;  and  they 
even  had  the  sagacity  to  compare  his  method  of  teaching 
with  that  of  the  Jewish  rabbins,  drawing  the  significant  in- 
ference that  "  he  taught  them  as  one  having  authority,  and 
not  as  the  scribes":  Matthew,  vii.  29. 

But  to  render  salvation  certain  there  must  surely  be  human 
creeds  ?  Oh,  no  :  they  are  not  at  all  necessary.  Christ  laid 
down  no  creed  except  that  he  is  the  Saviour :  the  Apostles 
professed  no  other  creed  but  this ;  and  the  Christian  Church 
was  content  to  abide  by  this  creed  till  it  began  to  grow  cor- 
rupt. Sects  only  need  creeds.  Christians,  not  given  to 
novelties,  have  creed  enough  in  the  Bible :  this  is  the  only 


DEDICATION.  vii 

creed  that  is  manifestly  God-sanctioned.  It  is  ample  enough, 
and  stringent  enough  ;  yet  it  allows  every  one  "  to  be  con- 
vinced in  his  own  mind." 

The  Bible  refers  to  man  as  co-agent  with  Christ  in  redemp- 
tion, and  declares  works  and  grace  mutually  and  inseparably 
co-operative  in  the  Christian  life.  The  Bible  and  liible- 
imbued  common  sense,  therefore,  are  to  be  regarded  as  ex- 
clusively normative  in  matters  of  faith  and  holy  living.  Such 
being  the  plain  and  incontrovertible  facts,  as  regards  this 
most  interesting  and  important  subject,  the  opinions  incul- 
cated in  this  paper  are  respectfully  inscribed  to  the  attention 
and  prayers  of  the  Friends  and  Advocates  of  biblical  truth, 
and  Gospel-enlightened  and  guided  common  sense,*  by 

The  Author. 

*  In  a  Sermon  on  tho  Reformation,  the  learned  and  devout  Spener, 
the  introducer  of  Pietism  into  the  dead  routine  of  formalism  of  the 
Lutheran  Church,  in  tho  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
writes  thus  :  "  Preachers  are  not  to  monopolize  all  proofs  of  doctrine 
to  themselves,  but  to  concede  personal  research  to  their  hearers,  who 
are  not  to  bo  hindered,  but  advised  and  urged,  diligently  to  read  and 
study  the  Scriptures,  that  they  may  establish  and  strengthen  their 
faith  in  the  word  of  God."  "  Therefore,"  continues  this  eminent 
divine,  "the  Scripture  is  to  bo  understood,  not  with  blind  submission 
to  the  commentators,  but  as  each  Christian,  after  diligent  meditation 
and  prayer,  is  convinced  hy  the  Ilohj  Ghost.  Christian  ministers  too 
are  delivered  from  the  papistic  yoke,  so  that,  in  our  oflSce  of  teach- 
ing, so  far  as  doctrine  is  concerned,  wo  are  bound  hy  nothing  but  the 
Holy  Scriptures  and  the  infallible  word  of  God,  and  may,  with  con- 
fident freedom,  teach  whatever  we  believe  to  be  derived  from  it,  and 
need,  therefore,  not  ask  whether  a  Pope  or  Council  has  authorized  it." 

The  following  cognate  sentiments  are  from  tho  pen  of  Prof.  Spre- 
cher,  in  a  contribution  to  the  Lutheran  Observer  of  April  10,  1868, 
founded  on  the  Life  and  "Writings  of  Luther,  by  Walch,  vol.  v.,  p. 
320,  and  vol.  vi.,  p.  182  :  "  Comfort  is  to  bo  found  nowhere  but  in  tho 
Scriptures  and  God's  word.   Wo  are  to  believe  no  Councils  or  Saints, 


Viii  DEDICATION. 

except  in  as  far  as  they  agree  with  the  word  of  God.  "We  must  re- 
main free  judges,  and  have  power  to  judge  and  decide,  to  receive  and 
condemn,  whatever  the  Pope  establishes  or  the  Councils  determine." 
I  will  only  add,  that  while  I  hail  Prof.  Sprecher's  utterances  in 
this  connection  with  no  less  pleasure  than  gratitude,  truth  compels 
me  to  say  that  the  liberal  views  now  and  then  expressed  by  Luther 
were  often  flatly  contradicted  by  their  illustrious  author,  especially 
in  his  obstinate  defense  of  the  dogma  of  the  Real  Presence. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


-PAGE 

Dedication ; v 

Iktroduction IS 

SECTION  I. 
Take,  eat;  this  is  my  Body 19 

CHAPTER  I. 

The  Language  in  which  Christ  administered  the  Lord's  Supper..     19 

CHAPTER  IL 
The  Hebrews  use  the  Substantive  Verb  to  he,  in  the  Sense  im- 
plying to  signify,  represent,  denote,  etc 22 

CHAPTER  IIL 
This  is  my  Body 27 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Consubstantiation  or  Impanation .32 

CHAPTER  V. 
Collateral  Scripture  Texts,  claimed  in  Support  of  a  Real  Presence, 
examined,  and  their  Inapplicability  set  forth 39 

CHAPTER  VL 

The  Doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence  comes  under  the  Category  of 
Sensitive  Knowledge,  and  therefore  its  Truth  or  Fallacy  may 
be  tested 45 

(ix) 


X  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PAGE 

In  which  will  be  shown  why  so  much  stress  is  laid  upon  the 
Doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence,  while  its  Untenablcness  and 
Dangerous  Tendency  are  pointed  out 62 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  were  only  Accessories,  not  Prin- 
cipals, in  the  Accomplishment  of  Redemption 58 

CHAPTER  IX. 
The  Ubiquity  or  Omnipresence  of  Christ's  Body 62 

PARAGRAPH  I. 

The  Ubiquity  or  Omnipresence  of  Christ's  Terrestrial  Body 62 

PARAGRAPH    II. 

The  Ubiquity  or  Omnipresence  of  Christ's  Glorified  Body 68 

PARAGRAPH   III. 

Christ  sits  on  the  Right  Hand  of  God,  and,  therefore,  his  Glorified 
Body  must,  say  the  Advocates  of  a  Real  Presence,  possess 
Ubiquity 73 

SECTION    II. 
The  Lord's  Supper  is  a  Memorial 77 

CHAPTER  I. 
Christ  our  Passover 77 

CHAPTER  II. 

Christ,  the  Founder  of  the  New  Testament 84 

SECTION  III. 

The  Lord's  Supper,  beside  being  a  Commemorative  Ordinance, 
is  also  a  Means  of  Grace 01 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  xi 

SECTION  IV. 

PAGE 

The  Use  of  Blood,  as  Food,  is  forbidden  in  Scripture,  and  can- 
not, therefore,  constitute  a  part  of  the  Real  Presence 96 

CHAPTER  I. 
Its  Prohibition  in  the  Old  Testament 96 

CHAPTER  XL 
Its  Prohibition  in  the  New  Testament 99 

SECTION  V. 

The  Apostolic  Decree,  Acts,  xv.  1-29,  prohibiting  the  Use  of 
Blood,  as  an  Article  of  Food,  is  still  in  Force 103 

SECTION  VI. 

The  Discourse  of  the  Saviour,  in  John,  vi.  32-63,  impartially 
examined,  and  illustrated  with  Direct  Reference  to  the  Doc- 
trine of  the  Real  Presence  in  the  Lord's  Supper 110 

SECTION  VII. 

The  Doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence,  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  must 
be,  forever,  retained ;  for  the  Book  of  Concord,  of  which  it  forms 
a  Part,  t'a  required  to  he  subscribed 121 

CHAPTER  L 
Students  and  Ministers,  at  present  received  into  the   German 
Evangelical  Lutheran  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ad- 
jacent States,  are  obliged  to  subscribe  all  the  Symbolical  Books 
or  Confessions  of  Faith 121 

CHAPTER  IL 

By  Subscription  to  an  Unalterable  Creed,  Progress  in  Religious 
Knowledge  is  stayed,  and  Violence  done  to  Conscience 125 

SECTION  VIII. 

The  Bible,  not  Man  or  Human  Dictation,  is  the  only  Authority 
in  Faith  and  Christian  Life:  a  Principle  of  Interpretation 
which,  in  the  Present  Light  of  Exegesis,  must  prove  Fatal  to 
the  Dogma  of  the  Real  Presence 132 


Xii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

SECTION  IX. 

PAGE 

Creeds  are  Necessary  only  where  there  are  Sects,  but  Sectarian- 
ism is  forbidden,  1  Corinthians,  i.  10-13  ;  iii.  3-11,  therefore 
Creeds  are  forbidden.  This  being  the  case,  the  Dogma  of  the 
Real  Presence  occupies  Forbidden  Ground,  and  is  itself,  of 
course, — as  Human  Prescription, — forbidden 143 

SECTION  X. 

Some  of  the  Dogmas  of  the  Lutheran  Church  have  fallen  into 
Desuetude :  a  Fact  which  encourages  the  Hope  that  the  Doc- 
trine of  the  Real  Presence  may,  eventually,  meet  with  a  Simi- 
lar Fate ;  but  in  the  meanwhile,  the  Venerable  Parent  of  Prot- 
estantism may,  in  Some  Measure,  justly  claim  Superiority  of 
Practice  over  Theory 156 

CHAPTER  1. 
Immersion,  in  Theory,  is  a  Lutheran  Mode  of  Baptism ;  in  Prac- 
tice, it  is  notobserved 156 

CHAPTER  IL 
Auricular  Confession  appears  among  the  Articles  of  Faith  in  the 
Book  of  Concord,  but  is,  at  least  in  this  Country,  not  observed.  161 

CHAPTER  IIL 
The  Mass,  or  the  Roman  Catholic  Ritual-Service  of  the  Lord's 
Supper 167 

SECTION   XI. 

The  Doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence,  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  was  the 
Cause  of  Some  Trouble  in  the  Early  Lutheran  Church.  The 
Source  of  this  Trouble — Want  of  Religious  Toleration 176 

SECTION  XII. 

The  Appeal  in  Behalf  of  the  Bible  and  of  Our  Country 189 


THE  DOCTRINE 


THE    LORD'S   SUPPER. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Viewed  from  a  Roman  Catholic  standpoint,  the 
Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  simply  a 
ridiculous  presumption,  which  ended  in  a  criminal 
apostasy;  whereas,  regarded  according  to  the  aim  and 
spirit  of  Protestantism,  it  was  a  glorious  revival  of 
pristine  Christianity,  distinguished  at  once  for  the 
vastness  of  its  extent  and  the  grandeur  of  its  results. 
From  it  is  derived  a  new  and  improved  order  of  things, 
expressed  in  the  social  and  intellectual  amelioration  of 
Protestant  life,  and  it,  therefore,  constitutes  a  pleasing 
and  prominent  epoch  in  the  history  of  mankind.  How- 
ever, with  the  exception  of  the  religious  element,  which 
pre-eiyinently  distinguished  this  arduous  and  noble 
enterprise,  the  good  that  resulted  from  it  was  rather 
incidental  than  designed.  Its  aim  and  efforts  were  of 
a  decidedly  negative  character:  repudiation  and  an- 
tagonism prominently  marked  and  illustrated  its  lofty 

2  (13) 


14  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

career,  while  it  was  mainly  content  with  hurling  just 
criminations  against  its  wily  and  puissant  foe,  or  with 
resolutely  uttering  protestations,  significant  of  stern 
dissent  or  bold  defiance.  The  ruling  sentiment,  which 
prompted  its  measures  and  guided  its  actions,  was  the 
decided  conviction  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
was  most  palpably  and  lamentably  corrupt,  and  that, 
consequently,  it  stood  in  most  urgent  need  of  a  speedy 
and  thorough  purgation  from  its  inherent  and  mani- 
fold contaminations.  Such  a  course,  it  was  claimed, 
w^as  loudlj^  and  absolutely  demanded  as  an  essential, 
and,  therefore,  indispensable  condition  of  the  success 
and  perpetuity  of  Christianity  itself.  In  short,  the 
Reformers  strove  to  restore  the  gospel  to  its  apostolic 
Integrity,  or,  in  other  words,  to  rescue  "  the  Ark  of 
the  Covenant"  from  the  unclean  and  idolatrous  hands 
of  the  papal  Philistines. 

To  this  destructive  principle — everywhere  revealing 
itself  in  acts  of  probing  and  excision,  which  animated 
the  zeal  and  directed  the  energy  of  the  Reformers  with 
a  praiseworthy  and  invincible  resolution,  in  regard  to 
the  devices,  the  abuses,  and  the  corruptions  of  the 
Roman  hierarchy,  and  its  despotic  encroachments  upon 
the  inalienable  rights  of  the  individual — it  was  chiefly 
owing  that  civil  and  religious  liberty,  after  a  prolonged 
as  well  as  profound  burial  of  ages,  again  revived,  and 
that,  wherever  the  spirit  of  true  Protestantism  exists, 
these  twin  sisters  of  a  higher  civilization  and  a  more 
refined  humanity  are  justly  included  among  the  chief 
blessings,  as  well  as  accounted  the  pride  and  glory,  of 
the  human  race. 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  15 

As  to  Scripturo  exegesis,  the  Reformation  may 
justly  be  presumed  not  to  have  exhausted  the  science, 
and  a  tliorough  biblical  knowledge  is,  therefore,  by  no 
means  under  an  exclusive  or  even  a  very  distinguished 
obligation  to  the  Reformers.  Of  the  laws  of  herme- 
neutics,  of  the  science  of  sacred  philology,  anthro- 
pology, biblical  criticism,  etc.,  they  could  have  but 
very  inadequate  knowledge,  indeed  mere  rudimental 
conceptions.  What,  for  example,  in  the  pages  of 
Scripture,  is  of  mere  local  import,  or  restricted  to 
national  boundaries  only,  they — without  scruple  or 
misgiving,  it  seems — applied  universally,  and  the  letter 
or  Jlefih  that  profiteth  nothing  or  killeth,  had  often, 
alas!  more  weight  with  them  than  the  spirit  that 
quickeneth ;  and  hence  it  must  be  conceded  that,  in 
consequence  of  such  vitiating  literalism,  they  lacked, 
to  a  less  or  greater  extent,  the  first  requisites  of  a  cor- 
rect interpretation  of  the  Divine  oracles. 

The  Reformers  generally  were  unable  to  push  their 
efforts  further  in  the  attempted  religious  metamor- 
phosis than  to  the  chrysalis  state,  where  they  settled 
down  in  permanent  fixation,  and  hence  the  various 
Protestant  creeds  are  as  unalterable  as  the  laws  of  the 
Medes  and  the  Persians  1 

A  fundamental  error  in  exegesis  which,  more  or 
less,  distinguishes  all  Protestant  creeds,  is  the  want  of 
discrimination  between  ethical  works  and  the  ritualistic 
works  of  the  Levitical  law,  and  the  consequent  lapse 
into  Antinomianism,  or  rejection  of  spontaneous  human 
agency  in  the  plan  of  redemption.  In  short,  without 
in  the  least  wishing  to  undervalue  the  important  ser- 


16  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

vices  which  they  have  rendered  to  mankind,  or  to 
ignore  their  eminently  Divine  mission,  candor  obliges 
me  to  confess  that  their  task  was  accomplished  in 
ushering  in  the  dawn  of  moral  and  intellectual  regen- 
eration, while  to  future  ages  was  left  the  glory  of  dis- 
playing a  noonday  light,  reflecting  and  illustrating  the 
labors  and  researches  of  a  constantly  progressive  and 
expanding  religious  development. 

The  sequel  will  show  that  the  reformation  of  a  cor- 
rupt Church,  and  a  thoroughly  intelligent  appreciation 
of  Christianity,  cannot  be  achieved  in  the  brief  space 
of  a  single  generation,  especially  when  we  reflect  that 
the  knowledge  of  the  Reformers  chiefly  comprised 
scholastic  learning,  while,  at  the  same  time,  their 
minds  were  warped  by  the  prejudices  of  a  bigoted  and 
servile  education,  thwarted  in  its  nobler  aspirations  by 
groveling  monachism  on  the  one  hand,  and  hierarchical 
tyranny  on  the  other. 

Nothing,  I  make  bold  to  say,  so  clearly  demonstrates 
at  least  an  exceptional  incompetence  of  the  exegesis  of 
Luther  and  his  ostensibly  more  Hgid  followers,  recog- 
nized— with  a  view  to  party  distinction — as  the  Sym- 
bolical Lutherans,  to  a  correct  interpretation  of  the 
Scriptures,  as  the  dogma  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  as 
taught  in  the  Book  of  Concord,  or  the  pernicious 
influence  w^hich  Romanism  still  exercised  over  the 
awakening  intellect  of  the  Reformers.  Notwithstand- 
ing their  firm  determination  boldly  to  battle  for  the 
right  as  they  understood  it,  they  deprecated  a  final 
rupture  with  the  papacy.  Hence  their  reformation 
could  not  but  fail  to  be  thorough,  while  their  secession 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  I7 

from  its  polluted  pale  was  rather  partial  than  complete. 
Ultramoutaiiism  never  ceased  to  cast  its  Upas  shadow 
over  the  Evangelical  Churches.  And  though  transub- 
stantiation  was  deservedly  condemned  as  a  flagrant 
perversion  of  the  eucharistic  institution,  as  well  as  a 
heinous  abuse  of  the  expiatory  sacrifice  of  Christ,  yet 
restoration  to  its  original  use  and  true  import  could  be 
carried  no  further  than  to  consuhstanlialion !  Here 
the  noble  ship  of  this  branch  of  the  Reformation  came 
near  stranding,  and  Luther,  together  with  those  who 
shared  his  excessive  sacramental  views,  for  the  present 
cast  anchor,  while  Rome,  erst  full  of  hate  and  just 
apprehension  for  the  future,  looked  on  with  evident 
complacency;  smiled,  and  apparently  triumphed:  it 
was  a  monstrous  Siamese-twin  like  connection  between 
the  Vatican  and  Wittenberg,  which  the  future  only 
could  sever  I 

And  shall  the  nineteenth  century  halt  in  its  biblical 
researches,  where,  more  than  three  centuries  and  a  half 
ago,  the  Reformers  halted  ?  Is  it  wise,  is  it  safe,  to 
do  so  ?  Is  religious  progress  interdicted  in  the  word 
of  God  ?  Or  is  the  God-given  reason  of  the  many  to 
be  only  the  plaything  of  the  aspiring  few?  Can 
Luther,  or  Zwinglius,  or  Calvin  answer  for  the  rest  of 
mankind  at  the  bar  of  the  Almighty  ?  Or  is  not,  on 
the  contrary,  every  one  held  personally  and  solemnly 
responsible  to  his  Creator  for  his  faith  and  conduct? 
Nothing,  I  conceive,  is  more  evident  to  the  unsophis- 
ticated mind  than  that  every  one,  as  far  as  it  is  possi- 
ble, must  individually  search  the  Scriptures,  or,  at 
least,  found  his  convictions  of  Christian  duty  upon  his 

QIC 


18  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

own  unbiased  judgment,  and  his  watchword  must, 
therefore,  ever  be,  Onward  and  upward  I 

St.  Paul  avers  that  "  the  word  of  God  is  not  bound," 
2  Timothy  ii.  9 ;  while  he  solemnly  urges  every  one, 
to  "prove  all  things,"  and  to  "  hold  fast  that  which  is 
good,"  1  Thess.  v.  21.  It  is  the  undoubted  birthright 
of  every  one  to  embrace  that  creed  only  which  he 
finds  scriptural  and  reasonable,  and  to  which  he  can 
give  his  hearty  approval,  while  human  dogmas  at 
variance  with  Scripture  or  the  plain  dictates  of  com- 
mon sense,  though  sanctioned  or  enjoined  by  great 
names  or  high  ecclesiastical  authority,  must  be  always, 
peremptorily  and  forever,  rejected  as  inimical  to  the 
best  interests  of  men,  or  as  snares  most  baneful  to  the 
soul. 

Though  sometimes  carried  away  by  passion  or 
warped  by  prejudice,  Luther  was,  by  no  means,  devoid 
of  liberal  sentiments  or  generous  emotions,  as  the  fol- 
lowing pithy  sayings,  among  numerous  others,  will 
testify:  "Man  soil  gewissenhaft  seyn,"  and,  "Es  ist 
um  den  Glauben  ein  eigenes  Ding,  woran  man  Nie- 
manden  kriinken  miisse." 

Easton,  Pa.,  August,  1872. 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  19 


SZBOTIOIsr    z. 
TAKE,  EAT;  THIS  IS  MY  BODY. 


CHAPTER    I. 

The  Language  in  which  Christ  administered  the  Lord's  Supper. 

Though  the  Greek  language  was  to  some  extent 
known  and  spoken  in  Palestine  at  the  time  of  Christ 
and  his  Apostles,  it  was  by  no  means  the  vernacular 
vehicle  of  communication,  and  the  great  majority  of 
the  people  was  as  unaccustomed  to  its  use  as  it  was 
unconscious  of  its  necessity. 

According  to  the  distinguished  biblical  scholar, 
Michaelis,  in  his  "  Einleitung  in  die  gottlichen  Schriften 
des  Xeuen  Buudes,"  the  original  language  of  the  Jews 
was  the  Hebrew,  but  after  their  return  from  the  Baby- 
lonian captivity,  this  language  became  so  far  obsolete 
as  to  be  retained  only  in  the  solemnities  of  Divine  wor- 
ship,* and  to  be  cultivated  exclusively  by  the  learned 
as  a  dead  language,  while  the  Aramaic — the  Syro- 
Chaldaic  language — took  its  place,  and  became  the 

*  To  render  it  intelligible  to  the  people,  it  was  necessary  to  trans- 
late it  into  Chaldee. 


20  TEE  DOCTRINE   OF 

common  vehicle  of  communication.  He  adds  :  "  The 
Hebrew  language,  whether  employed  or  simply  re- 
ferred to  by  Philo  and  the  writers  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, denotes  not  the  proper,  original  language  of  that 
name,  but  what  is  emphatically  recognized  as  the 
Ghaldaic.''^ 

What  the  candid  and  erudite  Dr.  Clarke  writes  in 
reference  to  this  subject,  in  his  Commentary  on  the 
New  Testament,  essentially  agrees  with  the  foregoing 
statements.  Referring  to  the  words  of  the  institution 
of  the  Lord's  Supper,  he  thus  expresses  himself: 
"  That  our  Lord  neither  spoke  in  Greek  nor  in  Latin, 
on  this  occasion,  needs  no  proof.  It  was,  most  prob- 
ably, in  what  was  formerly  called  the  Ghaldaic,  now 
the  Syriac,  that  our  Lord  conversed  with  his  disciples. 
Through  the  providence  of  God,  we  have  complete 
versions  of  the  gospels  in  this  language ;  and  in  them, 
it  is  likely,  we  have  the  precise  words  spoken  by  our 
Lord  on  this  occasion.  In  Matthew,  xxvi.  26,  2*7,  the 
words  in  the  Syriac  version  are  hanau  j^agree,  this  is  my 
body,  hanau  demee,  this  is  my  blood,  of  which  forms 
of  speech  the  Greek  is  a  verbal  translation  ;  nor  would 
any  man,  even  in  the  present  day,  speaking  in  the 
same  language,  use,  among  the  people  to  whom  it  was 
vernacular,  other  terms  but  the  above  to  express.  This 
reioresents  my  body,  and  this  represents  my  blood." 

In  this  connection,  it  is  proper  to  state  that,  in  trans- 
mitting to  us  an  account  of  the  gospel  in  the  Greek 
language,  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  retained 
the  idiomatic  peculiarities  of  the  original  Aramaic  or 
Syriac   language,  habitually  spoken  by  the  Saviour, 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  21 

and  in  which  he  proclaimed  the  momentous  truths  of 
redemption.  This  idiomatic  pecuh'arity,  or  remarkable 
linguistic  structure,  consists  pre-eminently  in  the  figu- 
rative modes  of  expression,  common  to  the  Shemitic 
languages,  of  which  the  Aramaic  or  Chaldeo-Syriac 
constitutes  an  important  branch. 

Much  stress  has  been  laid  upon  the  words,  "  Hoc 
est  corpus  meum,"  this  is  my  body,  contained  in  the 
Yulgate  version  of  the  Bible,  as  if  the  original  of  the 
three  evangelists  had  been  written  in  the  Latin  lan- 
guage. "  Had  our  Lord  spoken  in  Latin,  following 
the  idiom  of  the  Yulgate,"  says  the  commentator 
already  quoted,  "  he  would  have  said,  '  Panis  hie  cor- 
pus meum  siguificat,'  or  'symbolum  est  corporis  mei'; 
*hoc  poculum  sanguinem  meum  representat,'  or  *sym- 
bolum  est  sanguinis  mei' :  this  bread  signifies  my 
body,  or  is  a  symbol  of  my  body ;  this  cup  represents 
my  blood,  or  is  the  symbol  of  my  blood.  But  let  it  be 
observed,  that  in  the  Hebrew,  Chaldee,  and  Chaldeo- 
Syriac  languages,  there  is  no  term  which  expresses  to 
mean,  signify,  denote,  though  both  the  Greek  and  Latin 
abound  with  them :  hence  the  Hebrews  use  a  figure 
and  say,  it  is,  for  it  signifies.^^* 

*The  learned  Doctor  Prideaux,  in  his  valuable  work  entitled  "The 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  connected  in  the  History  of  the  Jews  and 
Neighboring  Nations,"  etc.,  after  some  preliminary  remarks  in  eluci- 
dation of  this  subject,  writes  thus:  "In  truth  the  Syriac  and  the 
Chaldee  are  one  and  the  same  language  in  different  characters,  and 
differing  a  little  only  in  dialect."  Having  observed  in  the  sequel 
that  the  Jerusalem  Chaldee  dialect  is  the  Chaldee  dialect  intermixed 
with  the  Hebrew,  he  adds:  "The  Jerusalem  Chaldeo  dialect  is  the 


22  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 


CHAPTER    II. 

The  Hebrews  use  the  substantive  verb  to  he  in  the  sense  implying  to 
signify,  represent,  denote,  etc. 

It  is  this  pre-eminently  tropical  or  figurative  char- 
acter of  the  Chaldeo-Syriac  language  that  so  promi- 
nently distinguishes  it  from  the  Greek  and  Latin  lan- 
guages, which  though  sharing  this  tropical  peculiarity 
to  a  moderate  extent,  especially  abound  in  terms  ex- 
pressive of  likeness,  indication,  memento,  denotation, 
symbol,  representation,  etc. ;  and  thus  this  indicative 
trait,  this  sign  or  token-intimation,  this  index-utterance 
or  oral  signation,  in  these  languages,  is  what  consti- 
tutes a  most  striking  difference  between  the  Occidental 
and  the  Oriental  idioms  of  expression.* 

same  which  was  the  vulgar  language  of  the  Jexos  in  our  Saviour  s 
time."  In  Milman's  interesting  "History  of  the  Jews,"  I  find  the 
following  narration  of  facts:  "At  Rome,  Josephus  first  wrote  the 
history  of  the  Jewish  war  in  the  Syro-Chaldaic  language  for  the  use 
of  his  own  countrymen  in  the  East,  particularly  those  beyond  the 
Euphrates.  He  afterwards  translated  the  work  into  Greek  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Western  Jews  and  of  the  Romans."  To  expatiate  is 
unnecessary. 

*  The  gist  of  this  matter  may,  it  appears,  be  briefly  summed  up 
thus :  The  Greek  and  Latin  languages  employ  the  verb  to  be  some- 
times in  a  tropical  sense,  while  its  usual  import  is  literal ;  on  the  other 
hand,  in  the  Shemitic  languages,  this  verb  is  comparatively  much 
more  frequently  used  in  a  figurative  sense.  The  chief  peculiarity, 
however,  of  these  languages,  according  to  Oriental  scholars,  is  that 
they  do  not  contain  any  words  which  express  signify,  denote,  or  rep- 
resent, etc. 


THE  LORD'S  SUrPER.  23 

I  shall  now  proceed  to  exemplify  the  proposition 
proclaimed  in  the  heading  of  this  chapter,  or,  in  other 
words,  to  demonstrate,  by  numerous  and  striking  pas- 
sages of  Scripture,  that  the  verb  to  he,  in  the  Aramaic 
or  Chaldeo-Syriac  language,  is  not  only  used  figura- 
tively, but  that,  in  many  instances,  it  absolutely  can- 
not be  used  in  any  other  way.  Illustrations  derived 
from  the  Old  Testament  will  iirst  claim  our  attention : 
The  three  branches  are  three  days,  Genesis,  xl.  12  ; 
the  three  baskets  are  three  days.  Genesis,  xl.  18;  the 
seven  kine  are  seven  years.  Genesis,  xli.  2G,  27  ;  the 
seven  ears  are  seven  years.  Genesis,  xli.  26,  2t;  ye 
shall  eat  it — the  paschal  lamb — in  haste,  for  it  is  the 
Lord's  passover.  Exodus,  xii.  11  ;  unleavened  bread, 
at  the  Jewish  passover  celebration,  was  the  bread  of 
affliction,  Deuteronomy,  xvi.  3  ;  God  is  the  rock  of 
salvation,  Deuteronomy,  xxxii.  15;  the  Lord  is  my 
rock  and  my  fortress,  2  Samuel,  xxii.  2:  the  same 
phraseology  occurs  in  Psalm  xviii.  2 ;  he — behemoth 
— is  the  chief  of  the  ways  of  God,  Job,  xl.  19;  he — 
leviathan— 2s  a  king  over  all  the  children  of  pride, 
Job,  xli.  34 ;  the  Lord  is  my  buckler,  the  horn  of  my 
salvation,  my  high  tower,  Psalm  xviii.  2;  the  Lord  is 
my  shepherd.  Psalm  xxiii.  1;  the  Lord  is  a  sun  and 
shield,  Psalm  Ixxxiv.  11;  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord  of 
hosts  is  the  house  of  Israel,  Isaiah,  v.  7  ;  the  ancient 
and  honorable,  he  is  the  head ;  and  the  prophet  that 
teaches  lies,  he  is  the  tail,  Isaiah,  ix.  15  ;  Israel  is  a 
scattered  sheep,  Jeremiah,  1.  17;  this  city  is  the  cal- 
dron, Ezekiel,  xi.  3  ;  thy  elder  sister  is  Samaria,  and 
thy  younger  sister  is  Sodom,  etc.,  Ezekiel,  xvi.  46  ; 


24  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

many  isles  icere  the  merchandise  of  thine  hand,  Eze- 
kiel,  xxvii.  15  ;  Judah  and  the  land  of  Israel,  ih^jioere 
thy  merchants,  Ezekiel,  xxvii.  IT  ;  these  great  beasts, 
which  are  four,  are  four  kings,  which  shall  arise  out  of 
the  earth,  Daniel,  vW.  IT  ;  and  the  ten  horns  out  of  this 
kingdom  are  ten  kings  that  shall  arise,  Daniel  vii,  24; 
the  two  horns  of  the  ram  which  thou  sawest,  are  the 
kings  of  Media  and  Persia,  Daniel,  viii.  20;  the  rough 
goat  is  the  king  of  Grecia,  etc.,  Daniel,  viii.  21  ;  the 
prophet  is  a  snare  of  a  fowler  in  all  his  ways,  etc.,  Ro- 
sea, ix.  8 ;  a  nation  is  come  up  upon  my  land,  strong 
and  without  number,  whose  teeth  are  the  teeth  of  a 
lion,  etc.,  Joel,  i.  6  ;  prophecy  not  again  any  more  at 
Bethel,  for  it  is  the  king's  chapel,  and  it  is  the  king's 
court,  Amos,  vii.  13  ;  the  Lord  is  a  strong-hold  in  the 
day  of  trouble,  Nahum,  i.  7  ;  the  four  carpenters  are 
the  horns  wTiich  have  scattered  Judah,  etc.,  Zechariah, 
i.  20,  21  ;  the  seven  lamps  are  the  eyes  of  the  Lord, 
Zechariah,  iv.  2,  10  ;  the  horses  of  the  four  chariots 
are  the  four  spirits  of  the  heavens,  Zechariah,  vi.  1-5, 
etc.  In  all  these  passages,  no  one  of  ordinary  intelli- 
gence and  candor  will  fail  to  recognize  in  the  words 
is,  are,  were,  etc.,  the  sense  importing  to  signify, 
mean,  represent,  denote,  symbolize,  etc.,  and  to  ac- 
knowledge that  the  phrases  in  which  these  different 
tenses  and  numbers  of  the  verb  to  he  occur,  are 
strictly  parallel  with  the  w^ords  in  the  Lord's  Supper, 
upon  which  the  dogma  of  the  Keal  Presence  has  been 
based. 

I  shall  next  invite  attention  to  the  pages  of  the  New 
Testament  for  examples  of  figurative  modes  of  expres- 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  25 

sion,  common,  in  tbe  use  of  the  substantive  verb  to  be, 
in  the  Aramaic  or  ChaUlco-Syriac  language,  and,  of 
course,  by  folU')wing  a  literal  translation,  reproduced 
both  in  the  Greek  text  and  the  versions  which  have 
been  derived  from  it :  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth, 
Matthew,  v.  13;  ye  are  the  light  of  the  world,  Mat- 
thew, V.  14;  this — John  the  Baptist — is  Elias  who 
was  to  come,  Matthew,  xi.  14.  Adverting  now  to  our 
Lord's  exposition  of  the  Parable  of  the  Good  Seed  and 
the  Tares,  recorded  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  Mat- 
thew, we  shall  find  that  it  will  readily  supply  us  with 
a  mass  of  fresh  and  overwhelming  proofs  in  behalf  of 
the  figurative  character  of  the  Aramaic  language,  trans- 
mitted to  us  in  the  sacred  pages  of  the  Bible,  which  are 
so  thoroughly  imbued  with  this  remarkable  linguistic 
feature.  The  disciples,  not  fully  understanding  its  im- 
port, asked  for  an  interpretation  of  the  paraijle,  and 
Jesus  replied:  He  that  soweth  the  good  seed  zs  the 
Son  of  man ;  the  field  is  the  world  ;  the  good  seed 
are  the  children  of  the  kingdom  ;  the  tares  are  the 
children  of  the  wicked  one;  the  enemy  tliat  sowed 
them  is  the  devil ;  the  harvest  is  the  end  of  the  world  ; 
the  reapers  are  the  angels.  Besides  this,  we  read  :  Be- 
hold the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world, — that  is,  behold  Christ,  who  is  the  Lamb  of  God, 
John,  i.  29  ;  John  the  Baptist  was  a  burning  and  a 
shining  light,  John,  v.  35 ;  the  bread  of  God  is  he  that 
Cometh  down  from  heaven,  and  giveth  life  unto  the 
world,  John,  vi.  33 ;  I  am  the  bread  of  life,  John, 
vi.  48;  I  am  the  living  bread  that  came  down  from 
heaven,  etc.,  John,  vi.  51  ;  I  am  the  door  of  the  sheep, 

3 


26  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

John,  X.  7,  9  ;  I  am  the  good  shepherd,  John,  x.  11, 
14  ;  I  said,  Ye  are  gods,  John  x.  34;  I  am  the  way, 
and  the  truth,  and  the  life,  John,  xiv.  6;  I  am  the  true 
vine,  John,  xv.  1  ;  my  Father  in  the  husbandman, 
John,  X7.  1 ;  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches,  John, 
XV.  5  ;  they  drank  of  that  spiritual  rock  that  followed 
them,  and  that  rock  teas  Christ,  1  Corinthians,  x.  4 ; 
these — the  two  sons  of  Abraham — are  the  two  cove- 
nants, Galatians,  iv.  24 ;  this  Hagar  is  Mount  Sinai, 
etc.,  Galatians,  iv.  25  ;  Jerusalem  that  is  above,  etc.,  is 
the  mother  of  us  all,  Galatians,  iv.  26  ;  this  is  the  blood 
of  the  testament  which  God  has  enjoined  unto  you, 
Hebrews,  ix.  20  ;  the  seven  stars  are  the  angels  of  the 
seven  churches,  Kevelation,  i.  20 ;  the  seven  candle- 
sticks which  thou  sawest  are  the  seven  churches,  Rev- 
elation, i.  20 ;  and  in  the  midst  of  the  elders  stood  a 
Lamb  as  it  had  been  slain,  having  seven  horns  and 
seven  eyes,  which  are  the  seven  spirits  of  God  sent 
forth  into  all  the  earth,  Revelation,  v.  6 ;  and  the 
woman  that  thou  sawest  is  that  great  city,  etc.,  Reve- 
lation, xvii.  18,  etc. 

To  adduce  more  evidence  upon  this  subject,  a  task 
by  no  means  either  difficult  or  ineffective,  would,  it 
seems,  be  a  mockery  of  common  sense,  and  clearly 
trifling  with  the  admitted  usus  loquendi  of  mankind. 
Our  Lord  himself,  as  we  have  seen,  indorses  the  figu- 
rative use  of  the  verb  to  he  in  numerous  and  most 
emphatic  passages  in  the  New  Testament,  as  the  pre- 
ceding quotations  clearly  and  satisfactorily  show,  and 
if  he  is  not  decisive  authority  on  this  subject,  how  is  it 
possible  fur  my  old  Symbolistic  friends  of  the  Lutheran 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  2t 

Church  to  be?     "Learn  of  ??i(?,"  admonishes  the  Sa- 
viour, Matthew,  xi.  29.* 


CHAPTER    III. 

This  is  My  Body. 

After  the  many  and  forcible  examples  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter,  of  the  eminently  figurativ^e  sense  of 
the  verb  to  he,  in  its  different  modes,  candid  minds, 
unwarped  by  prejudice,  uutrammeled  by  superstition, 

*  The  Luthcranisra  embraced  in  the  Book  of  Concord,  and  includ- 
ing the  three  Oecumenical  symbols, — as  the  Apostolic,  the  Niccne, 
and  the  Athanasian, — the  Augsburg  Confession,  the  Apology  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  and  the  Articles  of  Schmalkald,  Luther's 
Larger  and  Smaller  Catechisms,  the  Form  of  Concord,  etc.,  is  recog- 
nized under  the  appellations  of  Si/inbolism,  Symholic  Luthcranism,  Old 
Luthcrauism,  etc.,  and  the  professors  of  this  ample  and  somewhat 
rigid  creed  are  known  as  the  Sjmholist,  or  Si/mholic  Lufhcrann,  the 
Old  Lutherans,  etc.  These  descriptive  epithets  imply  not  reproach, 
but  simply  express  denominational  distinction.  In  this  country,'the 
General  Council  Lutherans  rank  under  the  preceding  categories,  to 
which  also  most  emphatically  are  to  be  referred  the  Missouri  branch 
of  Lutherans.  Of  these  General  Council  Lutherans  I  may  remark, 
that  the  **  German  Evangelical-Lutheran  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Adjacent  States"  occupies  a  most  prominent  position,  and 
that,  in  the  prosecution  of  this  Work,  I  shall  not  readily  lose  sight  of 
this  venerable  body. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  too,  in  this  place,  that  Old  Luthcranism,  Sym- 
bolical Lutheranism,  etc.,  is  pre-eminently  distinguished  for  the  in- 
flexible tenacity  with  which  it  adheres  to  the  dogma  of  the  Ileal 
Presence  in  the  Lord's  Supper. 


28  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

and  therefore  open  to  conviction,  must  be  satisfied  that 
the  phrase,  This  is  my  body,  means  tJds  signifies,  rep- 
resents, or  is  a  symbol,  etc.,  of  my  body.  But  we 
have  besides  abundant  proof  that  it  is  not  to  be  taken 
literally,  and  that,  therefore,  to  construe  it  literally  is, 
in  fact,  to  undermine  the  very  foundation  of  Chris- 
tianity, as  it  is  generally  understood  and  set  forth 
among  orthodox  denominations  of  Christians. 

When  Jesus  instituted  the  Lord's  Supper,  he  took 
bread, — unleavened  bread,  the  Jewish  Matze,  used  at 
the  celebration  of  the  paschal  feast, — and  having  broken 
it  and  given  thanks,  he  turned  to  the  disciples  and 
said.  Take,  eat ;  this  is  my  body.  How,  I  am  curious 
to  know,  could  he  preserve  his  proper,  incarnate  iden- 
tity inviolate,  and,  at  the  same  time,  give  his  body  to 
be  eaten  by  his  disciples  ?  Where  was  the  Son  of  God 
while  the  Son  of  man  was  sacramentally  consumed  ? 
He  could  no  longer  be  present  at  all,  on  the  occasion, 
in  the  capacity  of  a  Saviour ;  for  as  such  he  carried  on 
the  work  of  redemption,  not  only  as  spirit,  but  as  body 
and  spirit,  divinity  and  humanity  in  unity.  Reaching 
the  bread  to  the  distinguished  communicants,  he  said, 
Take,  eat ;  this — this  broken  bread,  is — means,  my 
body,  which  is  to  be  broken  for  you,  his  own  body 
being  then  still  alive  or  unbroken,  and  participating  in 
all  the  solemn  rites  of  a  most  impressive  and  eventful 
transaction.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  we  are  naively 
told  that  Christ  distributed  his  own  body  to  his  dis- 
ciples. And  yet  the  disciples  who,  on  other  occasions, 
involving  less  obscurity  and  incomprehensibleness, 
readily  enough  asked  for  explanations,  on  this  occasion 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  29 

never  express,  or,  as  far  as  can  be  judged,  even  inti- 
mate, tiie  least  surprise  at  this  unparalleled  and  de- 
cidedly unique  transaction  !  Being  present  at  the  time 
of  the  delivery,  in  strongly  figurative  language,  of  the 
Saviour's  discourse,  in  John,  vi.  33-03,  they  thought 
a  literal  interpretation  of  it  only  could  be  designed  by 
the  Divine  orator,  and  therefore,  not  being  able  to  re- 
concile it  with  the  tenor  of  previous  instruction,  their 
past  experience,  or  plain  common  sense,  their  aston- 
ishment found  expression  in  the  words,  "  This  is  a 
hard  saying;  who  can  hear  it?"  Sensible  that  "the 
letter  killeth,  but  the  spirit  giveth  life,"  Jesus  kindly 
hastened  to  relieve  them  of  their  embarrassment,  in 
proclaiming  the  emphatic  and  memorable  words  :  "  It 
is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth  ;  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing, 
the  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit,  and 
they  are  life."  But,  to  revert,  how  can  bread,  baked 
dough,  and  a  human  body  be  thus  grossly  and  gro- 
tesquely confounded,  on  any  recognized  principle  of 
sound  ratiocination?  Christ  said,  Take,  eat;  this  is 
my  body,  which  is  given  for  you.  Did  he  give  his 
own  body,  or,  in  other  words,  himself,  on  the  cross, 
for  the  sins  of  the  world,  or  did  he  give  the  bread  in 
the  Lord's  Supper,  the  Jewish  3Iatze,  for  a  sin-offering 
in  a  house  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem  ?  Matthew,  xxvi. 
18.  If  the  sacramental  bread  is  our  expiatory  sacri- 
fice, then  the  inference  is  inevitable  that  Christ  suffered 
and  died  in  vain  !  St.  Paul  writes  in  1  Corinthians, 
xi.  24,  in  virtue  of  an  express  revelation  on  this  inter- 
esting and  important  subject,  that  our  Lord,  in  dis- 
tributing the  bread,  said.  Take,  eat;  this  is  my  body, 
3* 


30  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

which  is  broken  for  you :  is  broken  for  you  is  a  p7^o- 
le2:>sis,  denoting  the  future  in  the  present.  Can  any- 
thing be  more  clear  than  the  apostolic  teaching  here, 
that  the  phrase,  "which  is  broken  for  you,"  imports 
that  Christ,  not  the  bread,  was  broken,  and  thus  made 
redemption  for  us  on  the  cross,  and  that  the  breaking 
of  the  bread  was  merely  to  symbolize  the  manner  of  his 
death  ? 

According  to  Matthew,  xxvi.  29,  and  Mark,  xiv.  25, 
it  appears  eminently  plausible  that  our  Lord  partook 
of  the  sacramental  supper,  in  common  with  his  dis- 
ciples, on  the  memorable  night  of  its  institution.  For 
after  its  celebration  was  concluded,  he  is  represented 
as  making  this  remarkable  declaration:  "But  I  say 
unto  you,  I  will  not  drink  henceforth  of  this  fruit  of 
the  vine,  until  that  day  when  I  drink  it  a7ieiv  with  you 
in  my  Father's  kingdom."  I  have  not  the  slightest 
doubt  that  he  ate  and  drank  with  his  chosen  disciples 
on  this  momentous  occasion,  pregnant  with  the  germs 
of  a  great  and  glorious  moral  and  intellectual  regen- 
eration. Now,  if  the  eucharistic  bread  is  the  body  of 
Christ,  Christ  ate  his  own  body,  ate  himself!  Saturn, 
w^e  are  taught  in  heathen  mythology,  only  devoured 
his  children,  but  the  sticklers  for  sacramental  literal- 
ism, inconsiderately,  to  say  the  least,  charge  the  im- 
maculate Saviour  of  mankind  with  the  extraordinary 
feat  of  devouring  himself!  A  phenomenon  without 
parallel  in  the  science  of  biology.* 

*  The  Lord's  Supper  is  the  banquet  of  sacred  fellowship,  the 
public  token  of  Christian  brotherhood,  united  in  a  common  interest, 
and  devoted  to  a  common  destiny,  and  hence   it  was  eminently 


THE  LORD'S  SUrPER.  31 

What  is  said  of  the  bread,  in  the  Lord's  Supper, 
holds  equally  good  in  its  application  to  the  wine,  the 
other  species  or  element  in  the  Sacrament.  Jesus,  in 
the  words  of  the  institution,  calls  the  wine  the  blood 
of  the  New  Testament,  "  which  is  shed  for  many  for 
the  remission  of  sins."  Here  again,  I  ask,  was  the 
wine,  or  the  blood  of  Jesus,  shed  for  the  remission  of 
sins  ?  If  the  wine  could  not,  on  any  conmion  sense 
principle,  have  had  a  direct  agency  in  man's  redemp- 
tion, it  follows  that  it  must  have  been  simply  employed 
as  an  emblem  or  sign,  on  account  of  its  red,  sanguine 
color,  of  the  vicariously-shed  blood  of  Jesus.  In 
short,  if  bread  and  wine  could  have  made  expiation 
for  the  sins  of  mankind,  neither  the  incarnation  nor 
the  crucifixion  of  the  Son  of  God  would,  I  conceive, 
have  been  necessary  ;  for  an  object  that  may  be  accom- 
plished with  inferior  means,  of  course  supersedes  the 
need  of  greater. 

proper  that  Jesus,  as  the  author  of  the  mnemonic  institution,  should 
participate  in  its  enjoyment,  as  well  as  preside  over  its  distribution, 
— eat  and  drink  with  the  elite  of  his  Christian  household  before  his 
death,  and  thus,  once  more,  by  his  earnest  manner  and  holy  conver- 
sation, solemnly  and  abidingly  impress  the  sacredness  of  their  great 
and  responsible  mission  upon  their  susceptible  and  attentive  minds. 


32  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

CHAPTER    lY. 

Consubstantiation  or  Impanation. 

CoNSUBSTANTiATiON,  with  which  impanatioD  mainly 
agrees  in  signiflcation,  means  the  union  of  the  body 
— and  blood  too,  of  course,  as  a  constituent  part  of  the 
body — of  the  Saviour,  with  the  sacramental  elements. 
The  origin  of  the  dogma  dates  back  to  the  twelfth  cen- 
tur}^  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  claims  one  Rupert 
of  Duytz  for  its  author,  who  proposed  it  as  a  modifica- 
tion of  transubstantiation.  The  Symbolists  or  Old 
Lutherans  deny  that  their  creed  teaches  consubstantia- 
tion; but,  notwithstanding,  though  the  term  may  not 
appear  in  their  dogma  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  fact, 
I  conceive,  is  patent,  and  stands  out  in  bold  relief 

According  to  the  Book  of  Concord,  the  true  body 
and  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  are  really  present 
under  the  form  or  external  signs  of  bread  and  wine, 
distributed  to  the  communicants,  and  thus,  under  the 
insignia  of  bread  and  wine,  received  by  them.  We 
are  likewise  taught  in  the  Schmalkald  Articles  that 
the  bread  and  wine  in  the  Lord's  Supper  are  the  true 
or  real  body  and  blood  of  Christ ;  and  in  the  Smaller 
Catechism  the  same  doctrine  is  reiterated,  and  incul- 
cated with  equal  force  and  assurance.  In  the  Larger 
Catechism,  the  great  Reformer  again  teaches,  "That 
in  and  under  the  bread  and  wine  are  contained  the 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  3,^ 

real  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  As 
to  the  Form  of  Concord,  it  lays  down  the  somewhat 
startling  proposition,  that  the  eating  and  drinking  of  the 
bread  and  wine  in  the  Lord's  Supper  are  a  veritable 
eating  and  drinking  of  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord 
in  the  Sacrament ;  yet,  after  all,  that  it  is  a  spiritual 
and  supernatural  eating  and  drinking,  and,  therefore, 
incomprehensible  ! 

According  to  the  article  on  Church  Visitation,  in  the 
Book  of  Concord,  there  are  two  substances  in  the  Lord's 
Supper,— the  terrestrial,  or  bread  and  wine,  and  the 
celestial,  or  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  we  not 
only  receive  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  spiritutilly, 
like  other  evangelical  gifts,  but  orally,  or  with  the 
mouth,*  with  the  bread  and  wine,  though  not  in  a  Caper- 
naitic  or  carnal,  but  in  a  supernatural  and  spiritual,  yet 
incomprehensible,  manner.  Besides,  agreeably  to  the 
same  authority,  the  body  and  blood  that  we  thus  re- 
ceive sacramentally,  are  the  real,  substantial  body  that 
hung  on  the  cross,  and  the  real,  genuine  blood  that  was 
shed  for  us  in  the  great  sacrifice.  Finally,  w^e  find 
within  the  ample  limits  of  the  variform  and  elaborate 
creed  of  the  Book  of  Concord,  that  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  are  not  locally_/oca/zYer— confined  to  the  bread 
aud  wine,  and  that  they  are  only  present  during  the 
communion  solemnities.  Though  this  last  sentence 
softens  a  little  the  gross  tenets  of  concorporation,  ad- 
vanced in  the  dogma  of  the  Ileal  Presence,  synonymous 
wn'th  impauation  or  consubstantiation,  it  cannot  nullify 


It  is  technically  an  oralis  manducatio. 


34  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

the  proposition  that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are 
in  and  under  the  bread  and  wine,  and,  therefore,  locally 
confined,  or  the  fact  that  the  communicants,  receiving: 
the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  under  the  external  signs  of 
bread  and  wine,  confine  them,  at  least  for  a  season,  to 
the  oral  process  of  mastication  and  incipient  digestion. 
A  doctrine  that  is  encumbered  and  distorted  with 
traits  at  once  so  astounding  and  mysterious,  absolutely 
in  the  opinion  of  many  involving  blasphemy,  is  un- 
doubtedly deserving  the  severest  animadversion. 

Is  consecration  instrumental  in  producing  impanation 
or  consubstantiation, — that  is,  the  Real  Presence  of 
Christ's  material  body  and  blood  with  the  elements  of 
bread  and  wine  in  the  Lord's  Supper  ?  I  answer,  Xo, 
and  proceed  to  advance  the  necessary  proofs.  If  by 
consecration  is  meant  setting  apart  the  sacramental  ele- 
ments, bread  and  wine,  for  holy  or  religious  purposes, 
— I  admit  the  applicability  of  the  term  to  the  liturgic 
service,  employed  on  the  occasion  of  the  institution  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  ;  but  if  by  it  the  idea  is  designed  to 
be  conveyed  that  a  metamorphosis  or  transmutation  of 
the  elements  into  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  is  pro- 
duced, or  that  consubstantiation  of  the  latter  with  the 
former  is  effected,  then  I  deny  that  Christ  used  a  rite  of 
consecration  at  the  solemn  institution  of  theeucharistic 
Sacrament.  But  what  do  we  find  on  the  subject  in*  the 
words  of  the  institution  ?  Matthew,  Luke,  and  Paul 
agree  in  stating  that  our  Lord  thanked,  or  gave  thanks, 
— eucharistesas, — on  this  affecting  and  memorable  oc- 
casion. Blessed  appears  in  the  English  version  of  Mat- 
thew, but  is,  of  course,  an  erroneous  rendering.     Only 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  35 

Mark  has  eulogesas,  he  blessed.  'Now,  as  to  bless  and 
give  thanks  are  analogous  acts  in  this  connection,  it 
follows  that,  if  "to  give  thanks"  cannot  have,  gram- 
matically speaking,  for  its  objective  case  the  bread  and 
wine,  but  God,  the  phrase,  he  blessed,  must  likewise 
imply  an  act  directed  to  God,  and  not  to  the  elements  in 
the  Lord's  Supper.  The  facts  in  the  case  may  be  briefly 
stated  thus  :  The  Saviour  thanked  God  for  the  bread 
and  wine,  hence  called  the  eucharist]  for  it  was  his 
devout  and  praiseworthy  custom  always  to  give  thanks 
before  he  partook  of  a  meal,  or  gave  entertainment  to 
others.  To  bless,  not  the  food,  but  God,  the  muniGcent 
giver  of  it,  is  likewise  synonymous  with  offering  thanks, 
or  praising  God  for  the  blessings  of  bread  and  wine ; 
for  eulogeO,  according  to  Farkhurst,  for  example,  among 
other  significations,  denotes  to  bless,  as  man  does  God, 
— that  is,  to  praise,  extol,  laud,  celebrate,  magnify  him: 
as,  for  instance,  Christ  did  for  the  loaves  and  fishes, 
—Matthew,  xiv.  19  ;  Mark,  vi.  41,  viii.  7  ;  Luke,  ix.  16— 
before  he  distributed  them  to  his  numerous  and  famish- 
ing guests.  This  liturgic  act  of  the  Saviour,  at  the 
Lord's  Supper,  was  in  strict  conformity  with  the  prac- 
tice to  bless  or  give  thanks,  observed  at  the  Jewish 
l)assover.  God  was  thanked  or  blessed,  that  is,  praised, 
for  the  manifold  blessings,  consisting  of  the  wine  and 
viands  of  which  they  joyously  and  gratefully  partook 
on  the  anniversary  of  this  sacred,  commemorative, 
vernal  feast.  Our  Lord  simply  repeated  this  pious 
and  venerable  custom,  and,  I  have  no  doubt,  no  more 
thought,  in  doing  so,  to  change  the  substance  of  the 
sacramental  banquet  into  something  supernatural  and 


36  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

incomprehensible  than  the  Jews  did  that  of  their  pass- 
over  entertainment.  It  is  also  to  be  noticed  that  the 
text  merely  asserts  that  Christ  blessed,  thanked,  not 
thanked  or  blessed  it,  for  the  pronoun  it  is  omitted  in 
the  original;  and  besides,  to  thank  or  bless  the  sacra- 
mental elements  instead  of  the  bountiful  Giver  of  them, 
would  be  simply  a  flagrant  absurdity. 

If  consecration  does  not  produce  impanation  or  con- 
substantiation,  what  does  ?*  Luther  and  the  Form  of 
Concord  answer:  It  is  the  words  of  Christ,  "This  is 
my  body."  In  the  Larger  Catechism,  Luther  writes, 
"It  is  true  that  if  you  omit  the  words  of  Christ,  This 
is  my  body,  or  contemplate  the  bread  and  wine  sepa- 
rately from  these  words,  you  have  nothing  but  barely 
bread  and  wine  ;  but  if  they  are  retained  in  their 
proper  connection  with  the  visible  elements,  as  they 
ought,  then  the  bread  and  wine  are,  consequently,  the 
true  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  for,  as  he  says,  so  it  is, 
inasmuch  as  he  can  neither  lie  nor  deceive." 

What  a  pity  that  the  clear  import  of  a  simple,  self- 
evident,  metaphorical  language,  by  the  unbiased  judg- 
ment of  mankind,  should  thus,  in  a  most  astound- 
ing manner,  be  either  ignored  or  perverted !  Such 
proceeding  is,  doubtless,  an  easy  method  to  found 
a  creed,  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  unhappily  keeps  up 
a  historic  connection  with  the  Church  that  transub- 
stantiates and  makes  a  god  of  its  sacramental  bread, 


*  The  so-called  sacramental  consecration  in  the  Christian  Church 
is  entirely  abnormal  and  unwarranted,  and  is  an  idolatrous  blessing 
of  the  elements  instead  of  God. 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  3Y 

hence  denominated  hostia.     Tliij^,  I  venture  to  suggest, 
may  be  regarded  as  a  specimen  of  Conservative  Prot- 
estantism.    Alas !  it  seems  like  Paradise  with  the  ser- 
pent in  it.     Instead  of  interpreting  the  phrase,  This  is 
my  body,  according  to  the  usus  loquendi,  of  which  the 
Greek  text  is  a  translation,  and,  agreeably  to  a  legiti- 
mate exegesis,  find  a  metaphor  in  the  expression,  Lu- 
ther understands  it  literally,  and  thus,  unfortunately, 
as  far  at  least  as  the  dogma  of  the  Real  Presence  is  in- 
volved, the  confidence  in  him,  as  a  reliable  commen- 
tator of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  is  justly  shaken.  Strange, 
thoHgh  his  mind  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  been  en- 
tirely freed  from  the  pernicious  influence  of  traditional 
prejudices,  that  the  man  who,  in  so  eminent  a  degree, 
deserved  the  epithet  "great"  as  well  as  "good,"  could 
not  perceive  a  likeness  between  the  broken  bread  in  the 
Lord's  Supper  and  the  broken  body  of  the  Redeemer 
on  the  cross,  and  thus  recognize  and  assert  the  figura- 
tive import  of  the  passage.     What  he  took  for  granted 
he  of  course   did  not  think  necessary  to  prove,  but 
contented  himself  with  insisting  on  the  supposed  magic 
words.  This   is   my  body,  as  the  ultimatum  of  iha 
matter. 

At  the  conference  which  took  place  at  Marburg,  in 
L529,  between  Luther  and  Zwinglius,  together  with 
some  of  the  most  eminent  doctors  who  adhered  to  the 
respective  parties  of  these  contending  chiefs,  on  the 
subject  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  Luther  wrote  with  a 
piece  of  chalk  on  the  table  at  which  they  sat.  This  is 
my  body  ;  and  thus,  after  a  session  of  four  days,  ended 
this  pacific  discussion.      Before   these  distinguished 

4 


38  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

arbiters  of  the  sacramental  question  parted  they  shook 
hands  in  token  of  mutual  good  will,  with  the  unani- 
mous resolution  earnestly  to  beseech  God  to  enable 
them,  if  they  were  in  error,  to  attain,  .through  the 
Holy  Spirit,  to  a  true  and  intelligent  solution  of  the 
subject  in  dispute.  They  no  doubt  all  kept  word,  and 
prayed  often  and  fervently  for  Divine  light  and  guid- 
ance, but,  it  appears,  without  much  success ;  for  all 
resolutely  continued  to  maintain  their  preconceived 
opinions  except  Melanchthon,  who,  though  not  till 
after  the  expiration  of  several  years,  earned,  or  at 
least  received,  the  opprobrious  cognomen  of  Crypto- 
Calvinist. 

Consistency,  we  are  assured,  is  a  jewel,  and  its 
worth,  I  presume,  can  hardly  be  overestimated ;  but  I 
seek  for  it  in  vain  among  the  views  which  Luther 
taught  and  others  believe  in  reference  to  the  Lord's 
Supper,  a  constituent  part  of  the  Gospel,  and  entirely 
concordant  with  its  general  teaching  and  significance. 
Thus,  for  example,  it  does  no  more  necessarily  follow 
that  bread  and  wine  are  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ, 
or  that  the  words.  This  is  my  body,  should  be  taken 
literally,  than  it  does  that  he  is  a  real  door  when  he 
says,  I  am  the  door  of  the  sheep,  or  a  real  vine  when 
he  asserts,  I  am  the  true  vine,  etc.  A  person  of  or- 
dinary intelligence  intuitively  understands  that  when 
our  Lord  calls  his  followers  sheep,  branches,  salt, 
light,  etc.,  the  language  is  metaphorical,  and  that, 
though  it  is  the  language  of  our  Lord,  unless  other- 
wise instructed,  it  must  bend  to  the  plain  yet  inexora- 
ble laws  of  exegesis,  and  cannot  be  taken  literally 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  39 

except  at  the  risk  of  stultifying  the  human  mind,  as 
well  as  committing  a  heinous  sin  against  the  holy 
oracles  of  God. 


CHAPTER    y. 

Collateral  Scripture  Texts,  claimed  in  support  of  a  Real  Presence, 
examined,  and  their  Inapplicability  set  forth. 

A  MAIN  collateral  argument  to  prove  that  the  body 
and  blood  of  the  Saviour  are  contained  in  the  sacra- 
mental elements  of  bread  and  wine,  is  based,  by  the 
advocates  of  tl^e  Real  Presence,  as  may  be  seen  by 
consulting  the  Schmalkald  Articles,  the  Form  of  Con- 
cord, etc.,  upon  the  passage  of  Scripture  recorded  iu 
the  1  Corinthians,  x.  16  :  "  The  cup  of  blessing  which 
we  bless,  is  it  not  the  communion  of  the  blood  of 
Christ?  The  bread  which  we  break,  is  it  not  the  com- 
munion of  the  body  of  Christ?"  These  words  have, 
indeed,  reference  to  the  Eucharist,  but  "the  cup  of 
blessing"  is  simply  the  equivalent  of  the  Hebrew  cos 
haharacah,  over  which,  according  to  Doctor  Clarke, 
Lundius,  and  others,  thanks  and  praises  were  ofiered 
at  the  conclusion  of  the  paschal  banquet.  Where  now 
appears  the  proof  that  in  the  words  of  the  Apostle,  just 
quoted,  is  taught  the  Real  Presence  ?  According  to 
the  Literalists,  the  sacramental  wine  is  the  blood  of 
Christ;  and,  of  course,  in  drinking  of  the  cup  over 
which  a  blessing,  that  is, /or  lohich  thanksgiving  or 


40  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

praise  has  been  given,  we  have  communion  with  Christ : 
and  in  eating  the  sacramental  bread,  it  being,  as  is  too 
hastily  or  too  credulously  taken  for  granted,  the  body 
of  Christ,  we  have  again,  of  course,  communion  with 
Christ.  In  other  words,  we  thus  eat  and  drink  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  are  accordingly  morally 
and  physically  united  with  him  through  means  of  the 
visible  elements.  If  this  is  not  a  begging  of  the  ques- 
tion, I  should  be  glad  to  learn  the  meaning  of  that 
phrase.  We  see  here  that  a  point  is  to  be  gained, 
while  the  means  which  are  used  to  this  end  seem  not 
to  be  so  scrupulously  chosen  as  the  importance  of  the 
subject  seems  to  demand.  I  doubt  not  that  Luther 
and  many  of  his  stanch  adherents  of  the  sixteenth 
century  were  entirely  honest  in  their  religious  convic- 
tions ;  but  it  is  clearly  one  thing,  even  with  great  men, 
to  be  honest,  and  another  to  be  capable  of  establishing 
articles  of  faith  strictly  conformable  to  the  word  of  God. 
The  most  objectionable  part  of  their  conduct,  doubtless, 
is  that  they  treated  all  that  differed  from  them  on  the 
subject  of  the  Heal  Presence  as  heretics  and  reprobates, 
and  uncharitably  branded  them  with  the  name  Sacra- 
mentainans.  Reason  had  primarily  nothing  to  do  with 
.the  formation  of  their  creed,  being  declared  incompe- 
tent to  arbitrate  in  matters  of  salvation,  and  their 
watchword  seems  to  have  been,  Believe  that  w^hat  we 
tell  you  is  true,  and  it  is  true,  whether  you  under- 
stand it  or  not.  A  concise  mode  of  inculcating  faith 
that  does  not  always  go  unrebuked,  as  the  following 
ludicrous  incident,  recorded  in  D'Aubigne's  History  of 
the  Reformation,  goes  to  show  :  "  When  Erasmus  was 


THE  LOR  IPS  SUPPER.  41 

in  England,  he  was  one  day  in  earnest  conversation 
with  Sir  Thomas  More,  the  Lord  High  Chancellor,  on 
the  subject  of  transubstantiation.  '  Only  believe,' 
said  More,  *  that  you  receive  the  body  of  Christ,  and 
you  really  have  it.'  Erasmus  was  silent.  Shortly 
after  this,  when  Erasmus  was  leaving  England,  More 
lent  him  a  horse  to  convey  him  to  the  port  where  he 
was  to  embark ;  but  Erasmus  took  it  abroad  with  him. 
When  More  heard  of  it,  he  reproached  him  with  much 
warmth ;  but  the  only  answer  Erasmus  gave  him  was 
in  the  following  quatrain  : 

"  'Only  believe  thou  sharest  Christ's  feast,  say  3'ou, 
And  never  doubt  the  fact  is  therefore  true  : 
So  write  I  of  thy  horse ;  if  thou  art  able 
But  to  believe  it,  he  is  in  thy  stable.'" 

But,  to  resume  the  thread  of  my  argument  and  give 
the  true  sense  of  the  misinterpreted  text,  I  remark  that 
to  have  communion  with  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ, 
signifies  to  have  fellowship  with  Christ,  inasmuch  as 
we  are  partakers  of  the  sacramental  bread  and  wine 
in  commemoration  of  his  vicarious  death.  The  Chris- 
tians, thus  eating  and  drinking  sacramentally,  commune 
with  their  Lord,  or  have  fellowship  with  him,  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  way  in  which  the  heathens,  at  the 
celebration  of  their  sacrificial  banquets,  had  communion 
or  fellowship  with  their  gods,  to  whom  the  sacrifice 
was  offered.  Paul  demonstrates  in  the  following  verse 
that  the  Corinthian  congregation,  though  composed  of 
many  members,  was  still  one  body,  inasmuch  as  it  par- 
took of  one  bread,  one  sacrificial  bancpiet, — the  Chris- 
tian banquet,  or  Lord's  Supper, — in  memory  of  the  cru- 

4* 


42  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

cified  body  and  shed  blood  of  our  Lord,  while  they  re- 
frained from  participating  in  Jewish  or  heathen  sacri- 
ficial feasts.  This  view  of  the  subject  is  corroborated 
and  triumphantly  established  in  the  following  verses 
of  the  same  chapter,  in  which  the  important  matter 
under  discussion  is  further  illustrated  and  confirmed 
by  additional  evidence.  In  the  eighteenth  verse,  the 
Apostle  speaks  of  the  unconverted  Israelites, — "  Israel 
after  the  flesh," — and  asserts  that  inasmuch  as  they  ate 
of  the  sacrifices  offered  to  Jehovah,  they  "  were  par- 
takers of  the  altar" ;  meaning  not  that  ihej  feasted  on 
the  altar,  but  that  they  declared  themselves  to  be  mem- 
bers of  the  Jewish  Church,  and  in  fellowship  with  the 
exalted  object  of  the  sacrificial  rite — Jehovah.  I  shall 
omit  in  this  place  the  following  or  nineteenth  verse,  as 
it  is  not  deemed  to  be  essential  to  a  correct  under- 
standing and  proper  appreciation  of  the  subject.  The 
Gentiles,  noticed  in  the  twentieth  verse,  sacrificing,  ac- 
cording to  the  Apostle,  to  demons,  erroneously  called 
devils,  in  the  English  version,  and  not  to  God,  he  for- 
bade the  Corinthian  Christians  to  have  fellowship  with. 
them, — that  is,  he  demanded  that  they  should  not  take 
part  with  them  in  the  celebration  of  their  sacrificial 
banquets,  and  thus  become  guilty  of  maintaining  com- 
munion or  fellowship  with  the  gods.  The  Apostle,  it 
should  be  observed  here,  distinctly  speaks  of  a  fellow- 
ship with  the  gods,  a  commemoration  of  the  greatness 
of  their  deeds  or  the  excellence  of  their  character,  not 
of  an  eating  of  them!  Finally,  he  plainly  tells  the 
Christians  at  Corinth,  in  the  twenty-first  verse,  that 
they  must  confine  themselves  exclusivelv  to  the  cele- 


THE  LORD'S  SUrrER.  43 

bration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  to  the  commemora- 
tion of  the  Saviour  in  the  sacramental  banquet,  and 
not  likewise  take  part  in  the  communion  feasts  or  cele- 
brations observed  in  honor  of  the  gods  ;  that,  in  short, 
they  could  not  be  followers  of  Christ  and  devotees  of 
polytheism  at  the  same  time,  etc. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  Scripture,  supposed  to 
furnish — besides  the  words  of  our  Lord,  This  is  my 
body — the  main  evidence  in  favor  of  a  real  presence, 
the  following  paragraph,  recorded  in  1  Corinthians, 
xi.  27-34,  is  appealed  to  as  furnishing  a  decided  triumph 
to  that  most  extraordinary  doctrine.  It  treats  in  a  con- 
cise and  forcible  manner  of  a  disorderly  and  irreverent 
celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  of  the  pernicious 
consequences  to  which  such  shameful  conduct  must 
necessarily  give  rise.  A  large  number  of  the  Corin- 
thian Christians,  unmindful,  it  seems,  of  the  proper 
nature  and  responsibility  of  their  sacred  calling,  asso- 
ciated their  participation  of  the  eucharistic  rite  with 
ordinary,  yet  festive-like,  entertainments,  in  which  they 
indulged  to  excess  in  eating  and  drinking:  and  thus, 
under  these  highly  reprehensible  and  disgraceful  cir- 
cumstances, they  were  unable  to  discern  the  Lord's 
body  in  the  sacramental  bread  and  wine,  or,  in  other 
words,  to  realize  in  the  bread  and  wine  the  sacred 
symbols  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  offered  as  an 
expiatory  sacrifice  for  our  sins;  that  hence  they  were 
guilty  of  "eating  and  drinking" — of  the  sacramental 
banquet— '' unworthihf ;  and  that  thus,  "they  ate  and 
drank  damnation  to  themselves."  The  damnation, 
Lrima,  in  the  original,  mentioned  here,  I  may  state  in 


44  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

passing,  means  punishment  or  suflfering,  which  resulted 
as  a  natural  effect  of  their  impious,  intemperate  be- 
havior; yet  this  damnation  was  not,  by  any  means, 
tantamount  to  final  reprobation,  but  disciplinary  or 
corrective,  and,  therefore,  adapted  to  amend  the  evil 
ways  of  these  unworthy  Christians,  as  is  evident  from 
the  tenor  of  the  thirty-second  verse,  "  But  when  we  are 
judged,  we  are  chastened  of  the  Lord,  that  ive  should 
not  be  condemned  ivith  the  worlds 

From  this  exhibition  of  undoubted  facts,  the  intelli- 
gent reader  will  readily  perceive  that  if  the  controverted 
tenet  of  a  Real  Presence,  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  has  no 
better  support  than  that  which  this  passage  supplies, 
in  which  the  Apostle  simply  treats  of  the  nature,  guilt, 
and  consequences  of  a  bacchanalian  celebration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  by  a  numerous  part  of  the  members  of 
the  Corinthian  congregation,  and  the  necessity  of  a 
devout  and  careful  preparation  for  a  worthy  participa- 
tion in  its  solemnities  and  blessings,  as  well  as  a  proper 
appreciation  of  the  design  and  use  of  the  sacred  insti- 
tution, its  chances  to  be  recognized  among  the  scrip- 
tural authorities  for  our  faith  are  indeed  very  small, 
and  I  hesitate  not,  therefore,  to  challenge  the  brethren 
of  Symbolic  Lutheranism  to  adduce  the  least  proof 
from  Scripture,  legitimately  interpreted,  in  substantia- 
tion of  this  clearly  anti-biblical  dogma,  the  relic  of  a 
pre-Reformation  period,  and  a  calamitous  source  of 
distraction  to  the  Protestant  Church. 

But  why  do  the  Symbolist  Lutherans  lay  so  much 
stress  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence  ?  Do 
they  suppose  that  that  doctrine,  in  spite  of  its  manifest 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  45 

inconpfruity  with  the  general  tenor  of  Holy  Writ,  is 
especially  calculated  and  designed  to  honor  our  Lord  ? 
Whatever  may  be  their  motive  in  thus  obstinately  per- 
sisting, contrary  to  the  laws  of  correct  exegesis  and 
the  plain  dictates  of  common  sense,  in  a  literal  render- 
ing of  the  words,  This  is  my  body,  it  appears  quite 
evident  to  the  unsophisticated  mind  that  they  involve 
themselves  in  the  charge  of  putting  a  false  construction 
upon  the  word  of  God,  and  that,  such  being  the  case, 
it  can  hardly  be  expected  that  its  Divine  author  should 
hence  feel  himself  especially  honored. 


CHAPTER    yi. 

The  Doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence  comes  under  the  Category  of 
Sensitive  Knowledge,  and  therefore  its  Truth  or  Fallacy  may  be 
tested. 

In  the  fifth  edition  of  the  Book  of  Concord,  published 
by  11.  Ludwig,  pp.  602-3,  speaking  of  the  different 
modes,  according  to  which  Christ  is  generally  or  in- 
definitely present,  Luther  thus  writes:  "Again,  in 
the  Lord's  Supper,  Christ  is  present  in  a  spiritual,  in- 
comprehensible manner,  inasmuch  as  he  is  not  confined 
to  space,  but,  as  seems  good  to  him,  is  omnipresent  to 
all  creatures,  and  is  thus  similar  to  my  vision, — to  use 
a  homely  comparison, — which  extends  through  air, 
light,  or  water,  and  is  not  limited  to  locality  or  space  ; 
similar  to  sound,  which  is  likewise  exempt  from  the 


46  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

trammels  of  physical  laws,  and  passes,  unobstructed, 
through  air,  water,  a  wall,  or  other  solid  substance ; 
and  finally,  similar  to  light  and  heat,  which,  with  an 
equal  freedom  of  motion,  penetrate  through  air,  water, 
glass,  crystal,  etc.  It  was  in  conformity  to  modes  of 
presence  or  law^s  of  mobility,  corresponding  to  these, 
that  our  Lord  escaped  through  a  closed  grave,  entered 
through  a  barred  door,  came  to  have  real  presence  in 
the  Lord's  Supper,  and,  as  is  commonly  believed,  was 
born  of  the  Yirgiu." 

In  the  foregoing  remarkable  specimen  of  ignorance 
of  the  laws  of  physics,  Luther  affirms  that  the  Real 
Presence  of  Christ,  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  is  to  be  ac- 
counted for  on  the  principle,  conformably  to  which  our 
vision  is  not  limited  to  locality  or  space,  but  extends, 
without  impediment,  to  any  distance  through  air,  light, 
and  water.  But  the  air,  light,  and  water,  through 
which  it  extends  or  passes,  are  themselves  confined  to 
locality  or  space,  and  the  fact  must,  it  seems,  be 
familiar  to  every  one,  that  our  sight  is  of  very  limited 
range,  reaching  but  a  short  distance  into  visible  space. 
Persons,  ignorant  of  the  laws  of  optics,  often  fancy  that 
they  see  objects,  when  they  only  see  their  reflection  in 
the  air  or  water  or  other  bright,  transparent  bodies. 
If,  therefore,  our  Lord  is  not  more  omnipresent  than 
our  vision  is  far-reaching,  then,  indeed,  he  must  be 
very  circumscribed  in  his  relation  to  space.  Sound, 
the  Reformer  likewise  assures  us,  meets  with  no  ob- 
struction in  its  passage  through  air,  water,  a  wall,  or 
other  solid  substance.  That  sound  cannot  be  propa- 
gated beyond  a  given  distance  deaf  people  will  testify, 


i 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  4t 

and  even  the  mighty  peal  of  thunder,  springing  into  ex- 
istence at  the  fiat  of  the  electric  flash,  embraces  but  a 
very  limited  area  in  its  appalling  reverberations,  in 
comparison  with  the  extent  of  our  globe.  Hence, 
again,  if  the  Saviour's  real  presence,  in  the  Lord's 
Supper,  is  not  more  widely  extensible  than  sound,  his 
ubiquity  is  not  only  local,  but  local  in  a  marked  degree. 
Finally,  light  and  heat,  we  are  told,  penetrate  with- 
out obstruction  through  air,  water,  glass,  crystal,  etc. 
If  this  is  so,  whence  comes  night,  or  the  ice  of  the 
polar  seas  ?  At  some  depth  beneath  the  earth's  crust  im- 
penetrable darkness  reigns,  and  could  man,  with  his 
present  organs  of  sight,  appear  there,  the  transparent 
glass  or  crystal,  visible  and  resplendent  on  its  surface, 
would  be  uudistinguishable  by  him,  amid  the  surround- 
ing objects,  shrouded  iu  the  sombre  habiliments  of 
everlasting  night.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  light  and 
heat  have  their  limits,  and  that  if  the  Saviour's  omni- 
presence, sacramentally  considered,  is  not  superior  to 
their  diffusive  properties,  his  ubiquity  vf\\\  not  estab- 
lish the  doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence  in  the  Lord's 
Supper.* 

-  The  following  facts  claim  the  attention  of  the  reader:  Dense, 
(lark  bodies  do  not  reflect,  but  absorb,  light.  In  such  case  it  is  iso- 
lated, and  can,  of  course,  afford  no  basis  of  a  comparison  with  the 
attributes  of  ubiquity.  Again,  light — whether  emitted  directly  froqi 
the  sun,  or  reflected  from  the  planets — moves  at  the  rate  of  about 
two  hundred  thousand  miles  in  a  second,  and  though  this  velocity  is 
inconceivably  great,  it  implies  locomotion,  and  is  carried  through 
space  by  successive  ether-waves,  thus  precluding  similitude  to  omni- 
presence, and,  therefore,  ill  adapted  to  prove  and  illustrate  the  latter. 

"When  the  air,"  writes  Professor Tyndall,  "possesses  the  particu- 


48  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

As  to  the  manner  of  Christ's  birth,  as  an  instance  of 
invisible  bodilij  presence,  it  suffices  to  sav  that  the 
Gospel,  accordiDg  to  Luke,  ii.  22,  flatly  refutes  so 
absurd  an  idea.  An  immaculate  birth  can  deserve 
attention  only  in  so  far  as  it  may  be  considered  a 
counterpart  of  the  monkish  "dogma  of  the  immaculate 
conception." 

That  Jesus  appeared  among  his  assembled  disciples 

lar  density  and  elasticity  corresponding  to  the  temperature  of  freez- 
ing water,  the  velocity  of  sound  in  it  is  one  thousand  and  ninety  feet 
in  a  second."  Some  philosophers  differ  somewhat  from  this  state- 
ment, and  declare  the  mean  rate  of  the  velocity  of  sound,  whether 
loud  or  weak,  to  amount  to  about  eleven  hundred  and  thirty  feet  in  a 
second  of  time.  Sound,  then,  instead  of  being  instantaneously,  uni- 
versally diffusible,  or  affording  a  good  similitude  of  ubiquity,  moves, 
or  is  successively  propagated,  through  space,  and  in  its  most  acceler- 
ated motion  or  favorable  condition  of  progression,  requires  an  hour 
to  pass  through  a  distance  of  seven  hundred  and  forty-three  miles : 
a  rate  of  velocity  which  would  occupy  thirty-three  hours  to  pass 
around  the  earth.  Hence,  if  the  ubiquity  of  Christ  has  no  more  omni- 
presence than  the  phenomenon  called  sound,  with  which  it  is  com- 
pared in  the  text,  it  rests  upon  mere  assertion  instead  of  fact.  Sound, 
moreover,  is  interrupted  in  its  motion  by  the  interposition  of  solid 
bodies,  for  it  does  not  readily  pass  from  one  medium  to  another. 
Therefore  the  likening  of  the  ubiquity  of  Christ  to  the  propagation 
of  sound  ignores  these  obstacles,  and  is  consequently  futile. 

Professor  C.  A.  Young,  of  Dartmouth  College,  in  his  lecture  on 
"  The  Sun,  and  the  Phenomena  of  its  Atmosphere,"  writes  as  follows  : 
"If  sounds  could  travel  through  the  celestial  spaces  at  the  same  rate 
as  in  our  air,  then  the  thunder  of  a  solar  storm  might  reach  us  in  a 
little  more  than  fourteen  years." 

Finally,  to  bestow  a  passing  thought  upon  some  of  the  properties 
of  heat,  I  remark,  for  example,  that  the  rays  of  heat  cannot  be  trans- 
mitted through  opaque  bodies,  but  that  impinging  on  such  bodies,  they 
are  either  reflected  or  absorbed,  and  the  idea  of  ubiquity  is,  of  course, 
nipped  in  the  bud. 


THE  LORDS  SUPPER.  49 

in  the  character  of  a  disembodied  spirit,  next  demands 
a  brief  notice.     From   the  fact  that  he  entered  in   a 
bodily,   yet    invisible    manner,    through    a   barred    or 
locked  door,  the  feasibility  and  therefore  truth  of  the 
tenet  of  a  real,  bodily  sacramental  presence  is  hastily 
assumed :  an  assumption  which  needs  corroboration, 
for  though  the  disciples,  as  appears  from  Luke,  xxW. 
•3G-40,  were  much  alarmed  when  they  beheld  Jesus 
suddenly  standing  in  the  midst  of  them,   and  really 
thought  his  ingress   had  been  ghostlike,  it  does  not 
follow   that   their    opinion   was  well  founded.      The 
words  of  the  sacred  historian  are  these:  "  They  were 
terrified  and  affrighted,  and   supposed  that  thev  had 
seen  a  spirit.     And  he  said  unto  them,  Why  are  ye 
troubled  ?  and  why  do  thoughts  arise  in  your  hearts? 
Behold  my  hands  and  my  feet,  that  it  is  I  myself: 
handle  me  and  see,  for  a  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and  bones, 
as  ye  see  me  have,"  etc.     Christ  here  clearly  repudiates 
the  idea  of  a  purely  spiritual  entrance,  and  I  will  only 
add  that  flesh  and  bones  are  not  well  adapted  either 
to  ubiquity  or  invisibility. 

But  we  are  finally  told,  that  our  Lord  made  his 
egress  from  his  closed  grave  by  again  assuming  the 
semblance  and  properties  of  a  disembodied  spirit, 
while  the  fact  of  his  incarnation  remained  unimpaired.' 
I  would  fain  learn  how  the  Reformer  knows  this. 
When  the  grave  was  visited  in  the  morning,  imme- 
diately after  the  resurrection,  it  was  found  to  be  closed  ; 
but  our  Lord,  who  could  bodily  arise  from  the  dead' 
could  also  bodily  pass  out  of  the  grave,  opening  and 
shutting  it,  if  it  thus  pleased  him,  even  unperceived 

5 


50  TEE  DOCTRINE   OF 

by  the  soldiers  placed  there  by  Pilate  to  guard  it.  At 
any  rate,  as  neither  Christ  nor  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  ever  refer,  in  so  many  words,  to  an  actual 
metamorphosis  on  the  occasion,  the  case,  I  humbly 
conceive,  merits  no  further  attention. 

If,  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  body  and  blood  of  our 
Lord  are  really  present  in  and  under  the  external  signs 
of  bread  and  wine,  it  is  knowledge,  not  faith,  that  must 
inform  us  of  the  fact ;  for,  as  stated  in  the  heading  of 
this  chapter,  the  question  comes  under  the  category  of 
sensitive  knowledge,  and  may  be  tested  agreeably  to 
the  laws  of  induction,  as  to  its  truthfulness  or  fallacy. 
If  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  are  really  present 
in  the  sacramental  elements,  the  communicant  must 
become  apprised  of  the  extraordinar}^  fact  in  the  act  of 
oral  manducation,  or,  in  other  words,  in  receiving  and 
eating  them,  but  he  is  not ;  for  his  sense  of  taste  per- 
ceives only  the  presence  of  bread  and  wine.  Both 
elements  taste  as  they  w^ould  taste  if  they  were  not 
sacramentally  used  ;  they  have  the  aspect  of  the  ordi- 
nary bread  and  wine  of  the  same  kind  or  denomina- 
tion;  they  have  the  same  weight;  and,  if  they  are 
chemically  analyzed,  they  are  found  to  have  the  same 
composition  and  properties.  How,  then,  can  the  real 
body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  crucified  and 
shed  for  us,  be  i7i,  icith,  and  under,  or  only  in  and 
under,  the  external  signs  of  bread  and  wine  ?  For  the 
Real  Presence  is  not  a  presence  of  the  benefits,  result- 
ing to  mankind  from  the  vicarious  death  of  our  Lord, 
but  an  organic  bodily  presence,  such  as  was  exhibited 
at  the  crucifixion  on  Calvary,  and  must,  therefore,  have 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  51 

sensitive  and  palpable  properties,  however  men  may 
twaddle  about  a  spiritual  eatin^^  and  drinkin^^.  To  pro- 
vide a  feast  of  material  aliment,  and  then  tell  the 
guests  to  partake  of  it  spiritually  and  supernaturally, 
could  only  be  regarded  and  treated  as  ridiculous  trifling, 
and  I  may  be  allowed  to  observe  that  our  Lord  was 
much  too  earnestly  engaged  in  the  arduous  work  of 
saving  souls  to  have  either  leisure  or  inclination  for 
trifling. 

To  illustrate  the  doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence,  and 
render  its  mysticism  less  obscure  or  more  plausible, 
Luther  was  in  the  habit  of  using  a  simile,  founded 
on  a  union  of  heat  and  iron.  "  Christ,"  according  to 
him,  writes  D'Aubigne,  "desired  to  give  tobelieVers  a 
full  assurance  of  salvation,  and,  in  order  to  seal  this 
promise  to  them  with  most  effect,  had  added  thereto 
his  real  body  in  the  bread  and  wine.  Just,"  con- 
tinued he,  "as  iron  and  fire,  though  two  different  sub- 
stances, meet  and  are  blended  in  a  red-hot  bar,  so  that 
in  every  part  of  it  there  is  at  once  iron  and  fire  ;  so, 
a  fortiori,  the  glorified  body  of  Christ  exists  in  every 
part  of  the  bread."  I  remark  that  even  so  subtile  a 
body  as  heat  cannot  permeate  the  interspaces  of  iron 
without  producing  a  marked  change  in  the  metal :  such 
as  increase  of  temperature,  combustion,  red  or  white 
color,  expansion,  malleability,  etc.  Now,  the  asserted 
Ileal  rresence  produces  no  sensible  change  whatever  in 
the  sacramental  bread  and  wine,  not  even  in  their 
weight,  though  it  is  the  real,  substantial  body  and  blood 
of  our  Lord,  notwithstanding  the  evasive  postulate 
made  here,  that  it  is,  as  such,  his  glorified  body,  while 


52  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

heat,  reckoned  among  imponderable  substances,  in  its 
union  with  a  material  body,*  attests  its  presence  in  so 
manifold  and  decided  a  manner !  Alas !  it  seems  to 
me,  at  this  moment,  as  if  I  heard  the  Saviour  once 
more  exclaim,  in  solemn  sadness  of  soul,  "  In  vain 
do  they  worship  me,  teaching  for  doctrine  the  com- 
mandments of  men  /" 


CHAPTER    YIL 

In  which  will  be  shown  why  so  much  stress  is  laid  upon  the  Doctrine 
of  the  Real  Presence,  while  its  Untenableness  and  Dangerous 
Tendency  are  pointed  out. 

In  the  Larger  Catechism  of  Luther,  w^e  are  in- 
structed to  believe  that  the  ineffable  blessings  of  re- 
demption, procured  for  us  through  the  death  of  Christ, 
are  imparted  to  us  only  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  in  virtue 
of  the  words  of  the  Saviour,  "This — the  broken  bread — 
is  my  body,  which  is  given  for  you  ;  this  cup  is  the  New 
Testament  in  my  blood,  which  is  shed  for  you  for  the 
remission  of  sins,"  etc.,  and  not  simply  in  consequence 
of  his  self-immolation  for  our  sakes  on  Calvary.  These 
words  of  the  Diviue  Founder  of  the  New  Testament, 
it  seems,  derive  their  extraordinary  power  in  the 
Lord's  Supper  from  the  circumstance  that  his  body 

*  I  shall  show  in  the  sequel,  that  the  glorified  body  of  the  Saviour 
is  not  more  likely  to  be  in  imjianate  combination  with  the  elements 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  than  the  natural  body. 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  53 

and  blood  arc  in,  with,  and  under  the  external  signs  of 
bread  and  wine.*  Having  taught  that  the  validity  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  is  not  impaired,  but  that  it  is  still 
the  true  Sacrament,  or,  in  other  words,  Christ's  body 
and  blood,  though  a  knave  should  administer  or  receive 
it,  the  Reformer  thus  proceeds:  "Let  us  now  consider 
the  design  and  benefit,  in  reference  to  which  the  Lord's 
Supper  was  instituted;  for  this  is  of  great  moment,  in 
order  that  we  may  know  what  advantage  we  derive 
from  its  use.  This  knowledge  may  be  readily  acquired 
by  giving  proper  heed  to  the  words,  This  is  my  body 
and  blood,  given  and  shed  for  you  for  the  remission  of 
sins.  The  sense  of  which  is  briefly  this  :  We  celebrate 
the  Lord's  Supper  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  gift, 
in  and  through  which  we  receive  the  forgiveness  of 
sins.  But  how  is  this  end  accomplished  ?  I  answer, 
In  consequence  of  the  words  of  the  institution  confer- 
ring the  gift  of  the  remission  or  forgiveness  of  sins  ;  for 
it  is  for  the  sake  of  attaining  this  end  that  the  Saviour 
bids  me  eat  and  drink  the  sacramental  bread  and 
wine,"  etc. 

In  Luther's  Smaller  Catechism,  we  find  essentially 
the  same  doctrine  advanced  on  this  subject.  The  an- 
swer to  the  question.  What  are  the  benefits  derived 
from  thus  eating  and  drinking  in  the  Lord's  Supper  ? 
is  thus  given  :  "They  are  pointed  out  in  those  words 
of  the  institution,  '  Given  and  shed  for  you  for  the  re- 


*  The  Form  of  Concord  gives  the  formula  of  the  Real  Presence  in 
these  words:  in  pane,  cum  pane,  et  aub  pane  :  in,  with,  and  under  the 
bread. 

5* 


54  TEE  DOCTRINE  OF 

mission  of  sins' ;  which  words  show  us  that  forgive- 
ness of  sin,  life  and  salvation,  are  imparted  to  us  in 
the  Sacrament ;  for  where  there  is  remission  of  sins, 
there  of  course  is  also  life  and  salvation."  These 
benefits,  thus  resulting  from  the  use  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  are,  according  to  Luther,  as  appears  from  the 
teaching  of  the  same  catechism,  not  owing  to  a  corpo- 
real eating  and  drinking  of  the  sacramental  bread  and 
wine,  inasmuch  as  mere  eating  and  drinking  cannot 
produce  such  effects,  but  it  is  that  solemn  declaration, 
"  Which  is  given  and  shed  for  you,  for  the  remission  of 
sins"  ;  which  words,  beside  the  literal  eating  and  drink- 
ing, are  to  be  considered  as  the  main  part  of  the  sacra- 
ment. Hence  whoever  sincerely  believes  these  words 
has  what  they  promise,  namely,  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 
What  first  deserves  our  notice  here  is,  that  the 
Lord's  Supper  is  said  to  be  instituted  mainly  with  a 
view  to  afford  an  opportunity  to  the  believing  commu- 
nicant to  appropriate  to  himself  the  Saviour's  words, 
This  is  my  body  and  blood,  given  and  shed  for  you, 
for  the  remission  of  sins ;  and  thus,  in  so  doing,  re- 
ceive what  they  purport  to  convey,  namely,  the  for- 
giveness of  sins  ;  whereas  it  is,  as  I  shall  demonstrate 
in  the  sequel,  instituted  expressly  as  a  memorial,  pre- 
figurative  of  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord,  to  be 
given  and  shed  for  us  upon  the  cross.  The  words, 
This  is  my  body.  This  is  my  blood,  etc.,  given  and 
shed  for  you,  for  the  remission  of  sins,  are  always  in 
force  in  their  relation  or  applicability  to  the  sincere  be- 
liever ;  and  not  only  on  actual  sacramental  occasions,'^ 
because  Christ  did  not  make  expiation  for  us  in  the 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  55 

Lord's  Supper,  but  on  the  cross.  It  is  not,  tiierofore, 
in  the  sacrameutiil  institution  that  we  have  "  life  and 
salvation,"  in  the  participation  of  the  fruit  of  a  consub- 
stantiational  union  of  the  external  elements  of  bread 
and  wine  with  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  but 
through  the  vicarious  passion  and  death  of  Christ 
symbolized  by  the  eucharistic  bread  and  wine,  which, 
in  themselves,  are  nothing  but  baked  flour,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  juice  of  the  grape,  on  the  other,  ren- 
dered sacred  on  a  sacred  occasion,  and  celebrated  for 
sacred  ends. 

Again,  if  "forgiveness  of  sins,  life  and  salvation, 
are  imparted  to  us  in  the  sacrament,"  then  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  a  substitute  for  the  cross,  and  Christ's 
declaration,  that  his  body  and  blood  are  given  and 
shed  for  us,  vitiates,  nay,  nullifies,  the  sacrifice  of  him- 
self for  our  sins ;  for  when  he  uttered  those  brief  but 
emphatic  words,  he  had  not  yet  suffered  death  in  our 
behalf.  Hence  it  is  clear,  if  plain  language  can  make 
anything  clear  to  us,  that  the  words.  This  is  my  body. 
This  is  my  blood,  etc.,  are  to  be  taken  metaphorically, 
and  that  they  signify,  denote,  represent,  typify,  etc.,  as 
has  been  shown  on  a  former  occasion,  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  to  be  offered  up  in  the  immediate 
future  for  the  redemption  of  mankind. 

The  doctrine  set  forth  in  these  catechisms,  on  the 
subject  of  the  Real  Presence,  is  not  only  radically 
erroneous,  but  of  decidedly  dangerous  tendency. 
Thus,  for  instance,  it  eminently  encourages /or/?iaZ/s??i 
among  its  adherents,  and  hence,  where  it  prevails,  re- 
vivals of  religion,  at  least  in  the  Speuer  and  Wesleyan 


56  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

spirit,  are  unknown.  I  have  known  repeated  instances 
where  persons  who  for  many  years  had  not  appeared 
at  the  communion-table,  and  whose  lives  had  all  that 
time  been  undistinguishable  from  those  of  "the  chil- 
dren of  this  world,"  who,  supposing  themselves  at  the 
point  of  death,  or  perhaps  actually  being  in  a  dying 
state,  without  any  apparent  signs  of  penitence,  ex- 
pressed a  wish  to  have  the  Lord's  Supper  administered 
to  them,  while  they  seemed  unconscious, — owing,  doubt- 
less, more  or  less,  to  the  influence  of  such  sacramental 
views  as  we  have  here  found  inculcated, — that  anything 
more  was  needed,  to  be  a  worth}^  communicant,  than 
the  conviction  that,  according  to  the  words  of  Luther, 
''  He  alone  is  truly  worthy  and  well-prepared  that  be- 
lieves in  these  words,  Given  and  shed  for  you,  for  the 
remission  of  sins."  It  is  a  fact  which  challenges  refu- 
tation, that  many  well-meaning  professors  of  religion, 
led  astray  by  notions  derived  from  the  dogma  of  the 
Real  Presence,  are  in  the  habit  of  ascribing  to  the  bare 
use  of  the  Lord's  Supper  a  kind  of  talismanic  property, 
and  it  is  accordingly,  in  their  opinion,  virtually  a  mere 
formality  or  routine  observance,  or,  in  other  words,  an 
opus  operatum.  Of  course,  Luther  by  no  means  de- 
signed to  bring  about  so  sad  and  mischievous  a  result, 
by  promulgating  his  singular  views  of  the  Real  Pres- 
ence ;  but  such  fruit  is  the  natural  product  of  seed  at 
once  exotic  and  noxious. 

If  the  Lord's  Supper  must  necessarily  be  a  saving 
ordinance,  agreeably  to  the  facts  brought  to  light  in 
this  chapter,  the  question  may  not  be  quite  irrelevant. 
What  became  of  those  Christians  who  lived  anterior 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  57 

to  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper?  For  they 
could  not  in  any  way  be  benefited  by  the  words  of  the 
Saviour,  This  is  my  body,  This  is  my  blood,  given  and 
shed  for  you  for  the  remission  of  sins,  if  belief  in  them 
is  essential  to  salvation,  as  we  are  positively  taught 
in  the  Reformer's  catechisms,  the  Form  of  Concord,  etc., 
in  which,  to  invite  attention  to  the  fact  once  more,  it 
is  repeatedly  and  most  emphatically  affirmed,  that 
life  and  salvation  are  imparted  to  us  in  the  Sacrament, 
in  virtue  of  our  faith  in  the  words  of  the  institution, 
"  Given  and  shed  for  you,  for  the  remission  of  sins." 

Finally,  the  doctrine  that  the  merits  of  Christ  are  ap- 
priated  through  means  of  the  Lord's  Supper  undoubt- 
edly betrays  a  lingering  sympathy  of  the  Reformer, 
without  perhaps  a  consciousness  of  the  fact,  with  the 
Roman  doctrine  of  transubstantiation ;  a  leaning,  by 
traditional  links  and  educational  prejudices,  towards 
the  scholastic  mysticism  of  a  dark  age ;  and  hence  the 
Lord's  Supper,  as  interpreted  by  him,  has  soterial 
efficacy  or  expiatory  virtue.  What  has  been  here  said 
in  reference  to  Luther,  is  of  course  equally  true  in  its 
application  to  his  rigid  and  literal  adherents.* 

*  That  I  do  not  prefer  an  unlikely  or  historically  untrue  charge 
against  Symbolic  Lutheranism  of  the  sixteenth  century,  with  a  still 
existing  propensity  towards  Roman  Catholicism,  the  following  sen- 
tence, quoted  from  the  comments  on  the  twenty-first  article  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  as  they  appear  in  "the  Church  Book"  of  the 
Synod  of   Pennsylvania,*  a  true  representative,  in  the  nineteenth 

*  Tlie  denignation,  Synod  of  Pennsylvania  or  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania, 
is  an  abbreviation  of  the  full  title:  Tlje  German-Evangelical  Lutheran  Miuis- 
terium  of  Pennsylvania  and  Adjacent  States. 


58  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 


CHAPTER    YIII. 

The  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  were  only  Accessories,  not  Principals, 
in  the  Accomplishment  of  Redemption. 

The  great  stress  which  is  laid  upon  the  dogma  of 
the  Real  Presence  of  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Saviour, 
in  the  Lord's  Supper,  is  doubtless  owing,  in  no  small 
degree,  to  the  over-estimate  of  the  part  which  they  bore 

century  of  the  Christian  era,  of  "  the  faith  once  delivered  to — the 
fathers"  of  the  Book  of  Concord,  will  verify :  "  This,''  thus  begins 
the  sentence  referred  to,  "is  about  the  sum  of  doctrine  among  us,  in 
which  can  be  seen  that  there  is  nothing  which  is  discrepant  with  the 
Scriptures,  or  with  the  Church  Catholic,  or  even  with  the  Roman 
Church,  so  far  as  that  Church  is  known  from  writers — the  writings  of 
the  Fathers." 

Now,  if  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church  are  true  exponents 
of  Romanism,  as  is  here  claimed,  and  Romanism  is  scriptural,  what 
need  was  there  of  the  Reformation,  which  set  out  from  the  principle 
that  the  Roman  Church  was  monstrously  corrupt;  that  a  reforma- 
tion of  it  was  imperatively  demanded ;  and  that,  accordingly,  this 
reformation  must  carry  back  its  efforts  to  the  pristine  Christianity  of 
the  apostolic  age?* 

*  I  adduce,  as  a  further  instance  of  the  too  great  connivance  observed 
towards  a  corrupt  Church,  the  attention  which  is  paid,  in  the  Lutheran 
"  Church  Almanac,"  to  Roman  Catholic  Church  festivals.  In  what  condition 
this  almanac  api^ears  this  year  I  cannot  say,  as  I  have  not  examined  it,  but  a 
few  examples  may  suffice  to  give  an  idea  of  its  character  last  j'ear,  or  the 
year  1871. 

The  festival  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  called  "Corpus  Domini  Jesu 
Christi,"  is  sacred  to  the  hostia  or  consecrated  sacramental  bread,  which, 
according  to  a  dogma  of  this  Church,  is  transubstantiated  or  changed,  -by  the 
solemn  act  of  consecration,  into  the  veritable  body  and  blood,  soul  and 
divinity,  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  and  the  notice  of  this  festival  figures  in  a 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  59 

in  the"  grand  work  of  redemption.  They  were,  I  may- 
con  fidently  say,  in  fact,  mere  accessories  in  tlie  sacred 
and  awfu]  drama  enacted  on  Calvary  by  the  Son  of  God. 
Flesh  and  blood  cannot  make  redemption  :  they  can 
only  be  vehicles  in  its  accomplishment;  and  therefore, 
in  strict  propriety,  be  regarded  simply  as  mere  passive, 
altogether  secondary,  instruments  or  adventitious  ac- 
companiments in  the  holy  mission  of  mercy  and  pardon 

Lutheran  almauac  as  if  it  was  one  of  the  recognized  dogmas  of  the  Lutheran 
Chiiicli ! 

Candlemas  is  another  Roman  Catholic  festival  taken  under  the  patronage 
of  tliis  almanac,  calculated,  by  such  dalliance  with  a  corrupt  Churcli,  to  injure 
the  cause  of  true  Luthcranisni.  "On  tliis  day,"  says  Webster,  "the  Konian 
Catholics  consecrate  all  the  candles  and  tapers  which  are  to  be  used  in  tlieir 
churches  during  the  whole  year.  In  Rome,  the  pope  performs  the  ceremony 
himself,  and  distributes  wax  candles  to  cardinals  and  others,  who  carry  them 
in  procession  through  the  great  hall  of  the  pope's  palace,"  etc. 

Shrove-Tuesday  and  Ash-Wednesday  next  claim  our  attention  as  ecclesias- 
tical curiosities  in  this  otherwise  excellent  almanac.  "On  Shrove-Tuesday," 
writes  the  learned  author  just  quoted,  "all  the  people  of  England,  when 
Roman  Catholics,  were  obliged  to  confess  their  sins,  one  by  one,  to  their  parish 
priest,  after  which  they  dined  on  pancakes  or  fritters,"  etc. 

Ash-Wednesday  derives  its  name  from  a  custom  observed  on  that  day  by 
the  priests  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  of  sprinkling  ashes  on  the  heads 
of  penitents.  With  this  day  begins  the  quadragesimal  or  forty-days  fast  be- 
fore Easter,  in  the  Roman  Catholic  and  other  churches.  The  Carnival,  cele- 
brated in  papal  countries,  and  the  counterpart  of  the  ancient  Saturnalia,  is 
the  devout  and  edifying  introduction  to  this  prolonged  but,  it  seems,  not  very 
macerating  fast. 

St.  Patrick,  too,  has  a  place  in  this  most  indulgent  almanac,  and  the  Apostle 
of  the  Irish  seems  to  be  in  a  fair  way  to  receive  the  honors  of  saintship  be- 
yond the  hallowed  precincts  of  Maynooth  and  of  Rome. 

On  the  third  of  May,  the  Invention  of  the  Cross  is  celebrated  in  Roman 
Catholic  countries,  in  commemoration  of  the  finding  of  our  Saviour'' s  cross; 
and  as  this  finding  of  the  cross  is,  of  course,  an  undoubted  historical  fact,  the 
Church  Almanac  does  well  to  notice  and  perpetuate  its  memory. 

I  invite  attention  but  to  one  more  Roman  Catliolic  festival  mentioned  in 
this  almanac,  the  Elevation  of  the  Cross ;  a  practice  of  wiiich  every  Protestant 
must  cordially  approve,  as  both  its  spirit  and  origin  arc  alike  evangelical  and 
instructive ! 


60  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  the  mind, — the  human 
and  the  infinite  mind, — in  the  person  of  the  Redeemer, 
that  brought  to  a  happy  issue  the  sublime  and  wondrous 
achievement  on  the  cross.  Yes,  let  me  repeat  it,  it  is 
mind,  soul,  the  immortal  intelligence,  in  the  blessed,  in- 
carnate Saviour,  that  alone  could,  and  did,  execute  the 
important  and  arduous  task  of  rescuing,  exalting,  and 
saving  sin-lost  man.  I  shall,  of  course,  not  stop  here 
to  inquire  what  quantitative  relation  the  two  natures, 
in  the  Divine  person  of  the  Saviour,  sustained  to  each 
other  in  making  expiation  for  us ;  for  this  is  a  problem 
which  I  do  not  presume  to  solve,  and  which,  in  order 
to  the  attainment  of  salvation,  needs  no  solution ;  but  sim- 
ply state  that  it  was  the  immortal  element,  so  to  speak, 
in  the  incarnate  God-man  that  wrought  out  salvation  for 
mankind,  and  not  his  body  and  blood,  a  fact  which,  con- 
sidered separately  or  abstractly,  cannot,  from  the  very 
nature  and  magnitude  of  the  case,  admit  of  the  least 
doubt.  Without  Divinity,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  im- 
perishable human  principle  on  the  other,  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  would  have  been  mere  dead,  inert  matter, 
incompetent  to  any  action  or  passion,  let  alone  expiatory 
and  redemptive  action  and  passion.  Indeed,  the  body 
and  blood  of  our  Lord  had  directly  no  more  to  do  with 
achieving  our  salvation,  except  as  external  instruments, 
and  as  means  of  a  visible  display  of  that  momentous 
fact,  than  had  the  robe  which  he  wore  at  the  bar  of  Pon- 
tius Pilate,  or  the  swaddling  clothes  in  the  manger  of 
Bethlehem.  Why,  then,  such  being  the  case,  did  the 
Saviour  say,  at  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
This  is  my  body;  this  is  my  blood,  given  and  shed  for 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPhn.  61 

you  for  the  reniissiiiii  of  sins,  tlnis  apparently  at  least 
ascribiiii^  redemptive  efficaey  to  his  body,  given  for  us, 
and  to  his  blood,  shed  for  us  ?  I  reply,  the  human  mind 
is  usuall}^  much  more  powerfully  impressed  in  witness- 
ing, or,  in  imagination  only,  contemplating,  a  human 
body  fixed  to  a  cross,  crowned  with  thorns,  pierced  with 
a  lance,  and  blanched  and  writhing  from  the  effect  of 
the  sharp  mental  agonies  endured  and  manifested  in  the 
appalling  death-struggle,  than  it  is  possible  for  it  to  be 
by  a  simple  reference  to  mental  distress,  however  intense 
this  may  be,  or  however  vivid  and  pathetic  should  be 
the  eloquent  and  graphic  portraiture  that  might  be 
given  of  it.  It  is,  therefore,  the  body  secured  to  the 
cross,  torn,  bleeding,  dying,  dead,  that  is  said  to  be 
given  for  us,  and  the  blood,  flowing  from  its  side,  or, 
sweat-like,  oozing  from  its  pores,  Luke,  xxii.  44  ;  but, 
in  fact,  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  thus  exhibited  to 
view,  in  a  state  ordinarily  regarded  as  simply  indica- 
tive of  exquisite  bodily  suffering,  are  really  but  out- 
ward displays  of  the  invisible  act  of  redemption,  sym- 
hols  or  signs  of  the  inward  agony  and  struggle  endured 
by  the  immortal  mind.  As  if  he  had  said.  Behold  this 
broken  bread  and  poured-out  wine,  they  are  to  put  you 
in  mind  of  the  broken,  bleeding  state  awaiting  my  body 
on  the  cross,  and  thus  enable  you  to  judge  or  form  some 
idea  of  my  inward  throes,  endured  in  the  vast  and 
overwhelming  birth-labors  of  redemption.  Redemption 
is  based  upon  the  combined  part  which  the  Divine 
and  the  human  spirit  performed  in  the  exalted  person 
of  the  Saviour,  and  not  upon  the  exhibition,  which  the 
flesh  and  blood — in  themselves  mere  organic  matter — 

6 


62  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

were  led  to  make  of  it ;  and,  therefore,  the  doctrine  of 
the  Real  Presence,  consisting  of  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ,  under  the  external  signs  of  bread  and  wine, 
in  the  Lord's  Supper,  must,  judged  from  this  point  of 
view, — the  only  really  logical,  and  therefore  tenable 
one, — be  regarded  as  at  best  only  specious, — a  baseless 
assumption  ;  for,  as  we  have  seen,  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ  have  actually  no  direct  and  absolute  action  or 
efficacy  in  the  origination  and  completion  of  our  salva- 
tion. Hence  here,  as  elsewhere  in  the  Divine  teachings 
of  the  Gospel,  "  It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth,"  while 
"the^Ze^/i  profiteth  nothing."    John,  vi.  63. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

The  Ubiquity  or  Omnipresence  of  Christ's  Body. 

PARAGRAPH   I. 

The  Ubiquity  or  Omnipresence  of  Christ's  Terrestrial  Body. 

That,  during  his  sojourn  on  earth,  Christ  was  true 
man  as  well  as  true  God,  is  the  unanimous  teaching  of 
all  orthodox  creeds.  He  was  born,  it  seems,  accord- 
ing to  the  New-Testament  historians,  like  any  other 
child,  Luke,  ii.  22  ;  grew  up  gradually  to  man's  estate, 
in  the  manner  of  other  children,  Luke,  ii.  52 ;  ate  and 
drank  in  a  human-like  way,  Matthew,  xi.  19  ;  wept  and 
sorrowed,  as  does  poor  humanity  everywhere,  John, 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  63 

xi.  35  ;  was  joyous  with  the  joyful,  as  a  genial  person 
would  be  likely  to  be,  John  ii.  1-11  ;  and  uttered,  as 
an  honest  human  teacher  would  feel  himself  bound  to 
do,  the  sentiments  of  profound  indignation  at  the  fla- 
gitious conduct  of  the  hypocritical  scribes  and  Phari- 
sees, Matthew,  xxiii.  13-33,  etc.  But  the  portions  of 
Scriptures,  to  which  I  shall  more  especially  refer  as  the 
chief  basis  of  my  present  argument,  are  those  which 
we  find  recorded  in  Philippians,  ii.  t,  8,  and  in  He- 
brews, iv.  14,  15.  According  to  the  passage  in  Phi- 
lippians, Jesus  was  made  in  the  likeness  of  men,  and 
found  in  fashion  as  a  man  ;  while  the  text  in  He- 
brews teaches  essentially  the  same  facts,  with  the  addi- 
tion of  several  important  particulars,  in  the  following 
impressive  language :  "  Seeing  then  that  we  have  a 
great  high-priest,  that  is  passed  into  the  heavens,  Jesus 
the-Son  of  God,  let  us  hold  fast  our  profession.  For 
we  have  not  an  high-priest  which  cannot  be  touched 
with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities  ;  but  ivas  in  all  points 
tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin." 

Christ,  having  thus  become  incarnate,  or  assumed 
humanity,  is  henceforth,  or  while  this  incarnate  state 
lasts,  no  longer  in  possession  of  Divinity,  in  an  abso- 
lute sense,  but  in  that  dual  state  peculiar  to  the  God- 
man,  and  which  is  restricted  in  its  relation  to  humanity 
to  the  limits  and  conditions  of  place  and  time.  I  do 
not,  by  any  means,  say  that  he  could  not,  at  any  time 
that  he  might  please  to  do  so,  sever  such  connection, 
and  assume  Godhood  without  the  clogs  and  imbecilities 
of  manhood;  but  I  say  that  as  long  as  he  maintains 
the  incarnate  relation  to  man  he  ceases  to  be  ubiquitous 


64  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

or  omnipreseDt, — a  prerogative  of  the  pre-incarnate 
state,  which  he,  of  course,  voluntarily  relinquished  when 
he  assumed  the  trammels  incident  to  humanity.  To 
obviate  this  difificulty,  so  glaringly  militant  against  the 
dogma  of  the  Real  Presence,  it  is,  I  conceive,  of  no  use 
to  talk  about  the  doctrine  de  communicatione  idioma- 
tum, — that  is,  of  the  reciprocal  interchange  of  the 
Divine  and  human  attributes,  in  the  person  of  Christ, 
possessing  at  once  a  Divine  and  human  nature.*  Such 
interchange  of  attributes,  except  in  some,  to  be  sure, 
adequate  degree,  and  temporally,  namely,  during  the 
consummation  of  the  great  act  of  redemption,  I  am 
constrained  to  deny,  and,  on  the  contrary,  to  maintain 
that  Divinity  and  humanity  consisting  of  but  one  per- 
son, this  person  is  incapable,  owing  to  the  human  ele- 
ment forming  a  part  of  it,  of  ubiquity.  As  certainly  as 
man  is  of  local  or  circumscribed  presence,  so  certainly 
must  the  Saviour  in  his  humanity  be  local  or  confined 
in  his  mobility  ;  for  such  is  the  lot  of  man,  and  he  "  is 
in  the  likeness  of  men,  and  in  fashion  as  a  man."  If 
Christ,  therefore,  should  impart  Divinity  to  humanity, 
so  as  to  confer  on  it  ubiquity,  it  would  instantly  cease 
to  be  proper  humanity,  and  he  could  no  longer  be  re- 
garded or  treated  as  "the  Word"  that  "was  made 
flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us."    John,  i.  14. 

I  shall  now  briefly  invite  attention  to  the  proof  that 
the  terrestrial  body  of  Christ,  which  is  claimed  to  be 
present  in  the  sacramental  bread  and  wine,  was  so  far 
from  being  ubiquitous,  that  he  that  was  incarnate  in 

*  Form  of  Concord. 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  65 

that  body  was  accustomed,  during  his  earthly  sojourn, 
to  move  about  within  very  narrow  limits,  and  was, 
besides,  never  known,  as  far  as  appears  from  the  history 
of  his  life,  transmitted  to  us  in  the  gospel,  to  be  in 
more  than  one  place  at  the  same  time ;  which,  I  humbly 
conceive,  would  not  have  been  the  case  if  he  had  pos- 
sessed a  body  capable,  by  a  conferred  attribute  of 
Divinity,  of  the  sublime  exercise  of  ubiquity. 

It  is  a  law  of  physics,  to  which  there  is  no  exception, 
that  a  body  cannot  be  in  more  than  one  place  at  the 
same  time.  This  is  a  property  of  matter,  with  which 
God  himself  has  endowed  it,  and  to  which  the  mightiest 
monarch  on  the  throne,  as  well  as  the  smallest  atom 
of  dust,  are  alike  inexorably  subject.  Even  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  in  his  humility,  is  not  exempt  from  it. 
Thus,  when  he  lay  in  the  manger,  he  was  nowhere 
else,  and  the  "  wise  men  from  the  East"  found  him 
only  there.  When  he  resolved  to  go  to  Egypt,  he  had 
to  leave  Bethlehem  before  he  could  carry  his  resolution 
into  effect.  When  he  departed  from  the  far-famed 
land  of  the  Pharaohs,  to  take  up  his  abode  at  Nazareth, 
he  had  to  go  there  progressively,  in  a  manner  similar 
to  another  human  being;  and  when  "he  went  about 
doing  good,"  which,  in  his  benignant  and  exalted 
capacity  of  Saviour,  he  always  did,  he  went — agree- 
ably to  the  laws  of  motion — from  place  to  place,  ad- 
vancing by  degrees,  and  at  the  expense  of  a  certain 
amount  of  physical  force,  as  did  the  least  and  most 
obscure  of  his  followers ;  and  we  find  no  trace,  in  his 
grand  missionary  and  soterial  operations,  indicative 
either  of  the  possession  or  of  the  practice  of  ubiquity. 
G* 


66  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

1  will  come  and  heal  him,  Matthew,  viii.  7  ;  I  go  to 
prepare  a  place  for  you,  John,  xiv.  2,  etc.  The  words 
of  Doctor  Clarke,  though  uttered  without  direct  refer- 
ence to  this  subject,  are  eminently  appropriate,  and  ac- 
cordingly deserve  a  place  here.  Treating  of  the  prop- 
erties of  matter  or  body,  less,  to  be  sure,  like  a 
commentator  than  a  philosopher,  he  writes  :  "  To  these 
belong  extension,  divisibility,  figurability,  and  mobility, 
which  imjjly  limitation:  God  and  matter  have  essen- 
tially contrary  2^rope7^ties.''^ 

From  the  foregoing  train  of  reasoning,  I  think  it  is 
evident  that  God,  as  the  absolute  Divinity,  has  attri- 
butes which  the  God-man  no  longer  possesses.  Add 
to  this  already  imposing  array  of  testimony  the  decisive 
fact,  that  the  crucified  body  of  the  Saviour  no  longer 
exists,  and  what  becomes  of  the  great  stumbling- 
block  in  the  Lutheran  Church, — the  dogma  of  the  Real 
Presence  ?  It  is  carefully  to  be  borne  in  mind,  that  it 
is  emphatically  the  identical  body  that  expired  upon 
the  cross  that  is  declared  to  be  present  in  the  sacra- 
mental bread  and  wine,  or,  in  other  words,  to  be  in, 
with,  and  under  these  visible  and  tangible  constituents 
of  the  holy  supper :  "  Of  the  Lord's  Supper,  we  teach 
that  in  it  the  true  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are  really 
present,  under  the  form  of  bread  and  wine,  and  thus,  at 
once,  distributed  and  received."  (Augsburg  Confes- 
sion, Article  Tenth.)  In  the  Apology  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  Melanchthon,  in  addition  to  this  statement, 
indorses  what  St.  Cyril,  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  says  of 
the  Lord's  Sapper,  "  That  Christ  is  bodily  present  and 
distributed  in  the  Sacrament."     These  startling  views 


rilE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  07 

are  siil)stantiall3'  reiterated  in  the  Form  of  Concord, 
and  read  thus:  "We  believe,  teach,  and  confess  that 
the  words  of  the  Lord's  Supper  are  not  to  be  under- 
stood dillerently  from  their  literal  import,  and  thus  the 
bread  and  wine  made  to  signify  the  absent  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  but  that  the  bread  and  wine,  for  the  sake 
of  sacramental  union,  are  the  true  body  and  blood  of 
Christ."  It  is  useless  to  cite  more  Symbolical  author- 
ity, to  prove  that  the  body  in  which  our  Saviour  was 
incarnate  upon  earth  constitutes  the  Real  Presence  in 
the  Sacrament.  It  suffices  to  repeat  that  this  body  no 
longer  exists,  but  has  been  superseded  by  Christ's 
glorified  body,  and  that,  as  it  is  a  universally  recog- 
nized axiom  in  natural  philosophy,  to  which  all  bodies, 
however  subtile  or  dense,  must  yield,  "  that  it  is  im- 
possible for  the  same  thing  to  be  and  not  to  be  at  the 
same  time";  therefore,  I  hold  that  the  crucified  body 
of  Christ,  long  since  decomposed  into  its  elementary 
constituents,  and  supplanted  by  a  body,  to  the  func- 
tions of  which  it  was  no  longer  competent,  can  have 
no  existence  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  in  its  normal  organic 
state,  or  in  any  state  responding  to  a  personal  humanity ; 
and  hence  a  real  presence,  in  the  accepted  sense,  can 
have  no  existence,  except  in  imagination,  or,  perhaps, 
a  fondness  for  antithesis. 


68  TEE  DOCTRINE  OF 

PARAGRAPH   IL 

The  Ubiquitj-  or  Omnipresence  of  Christ's  Glorified  Body. 

Haying  treated  of  the  spiritual  eating  of  the  bless- 
ings resulting  from  the  death  of  Christ,  or  their  appro- 
priation by  faith,  in  a  general  way,  the  authors  of  the 
Form  of  Concord,  p.  59t,  speak  of  the  eating  and 
drinking  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  as  an  oral  or 
sacramental  eating  and  drinking,  and  then  continue 
thus  to  expatiate  on  the  subject:  "In  the  Lord's 
Supper,"  they  assert,  "  the  true  and  essential  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  are  received  by  the  believer,  as  a  pledge 
and  assurance  that  his  sins  are  most  certainly  forgiven, 
and  that  Christ  dwells  in  him  and  imparts  to  him  his 
grace.  The  Saviour's  commandment,  when  he  dis- 
tributed the  symbols  of  bread  and  wine  to  his  disciples, 
and  called  them,  in  the  literal  sense  of  the  terms,  his 
body  and  his  blood,  'To  eat  and  drink,'  cannot  have 
meant  anything  but  an  oral  eating  and  drinking, 
though  not  a  gross,  carnal,  Capernaitic*  eating  and 
drinking,  but  an  eating  and  drinking  in  a  supernatural 
and  incomprehensible  manner,"  etc. 

What  strikes  one  very  forcibly  here  is,  that  the  oral 
eating  and  drinking  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ 
are  declared  -not  to  be  a  gross,  carnal,  Capernaitic 
eating  and  drinking,  but  a  supernatural  and  incompre- 

*  This  Capernaitic  eating  auJ  drinking  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  I 
shall  prove  in  the  sequel  to  be  an  eminently  sjjJritual  eating  and 
drinking. 


THE  LORD'S  SUrPER.  CO 

bensihlo  catinp^  and  (Irinkin^^.  Now,  if  it  is  incompre- 
hensible, in  what  way  is  its  meaning  ascertained  l)y 
the  believers  in  the  Real  Presence  ?  And  again,  if  it 
is  incomprehensible,  how  can  they,  with  any  sense  of 
justice  or  propriety,  censure  or  condemn  those  who 
entertain  views  on  this  subject  different  from  their 
own  ?  Christ — as  I  have  shown  all  along — certainly 
teaches  no  such  sacramental  enigma.  Then  again,  to 
receive  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  into  the  mouth, 
eat  it,  drink  it,  swallow  it,  digest  it,  and  do  all  this,  not 
in  a  natural  and  appreciable,  but  in  a  supernatural  and 
incomprehensible  manner,  without  being  conscious  of 
it,  is  a  most  glaring  outrage  against  the  common  sense 
of  the  communicant.  I  would  not  deal  harshly  with 
the  memory  of  men  who,  as  Reformers,  notwithstand- 
ing the  incompleteness  and  partial  defects  of  their  la- 
bors, deserve,  for  the  vast  deal  of  good  they  have  done, 
the  profound  gratitude  of  posterity ;  yet  I  am  under  log- 
ical and  moral  necessity  to  avow — without  intending 
the  least  disrespect  in  so  doing  towards  dissenting 
brethren — that  the  doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence,  in 
the  Lord's  Supper,  is  the  most  extravagant  chimera 
that  the  human  mind  has  ever  devised,  to  mystify  and 
perplex  a  plain,  nay,  in  fact,  a  self-evident  truth  !  It 
is  not  possible  that  God  can  take  pleasure  in  the  origi- 
nation and  propagation  of  error,  and  an  error,  too,  of 
so  grave  and  pernicious  a  character,  when  a  simple, 
universally  recognized  principle  of  interpretation  can 
alone  be  adequate  to  declare  his  will  and  illustrate  our 
duty. 

Some  of  the  principal  arguments  assigned  in  the 


70  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

Form  of  Concord,  p.  499,  for  the  reasonableness  and 
practicability  of  the  Real  Presence,  in  the  Lord's 
Supper,  of  Christ's  glorified  body,  I  shall  here  intro- 
duce to  the  reader's  notice,  and  in  so  doing  enable  him 
to  judge  of  their  cogency  as  well  as  prepare  him  prop- 
erly to  appreciate  the  scope  and  pertinence  of  the  pres- 
ent disquisition:  "Having  entered  into  his  glory,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  knows  all  things,  not  only  as  God, 
but  as  man  ;  possesses  all  power  ;  is  omnipresent  to  all 
creatures;  and  holds,  as  he  himself  assures  us,  all  things 
in  heaven,  on  earth,  and  under  the  earth,  in  subjection: 
'All  power  is  given  to  me  in  heaven  and  on  earth.' 
And  St.  Paul  declares  that,  '  He  that  descended  is 
the  same  that  ascended  up  far  above  all  heavens,  that 
he  might  fill  all  things,'  Ephesians,  iv.  10.  Hence 
he  possesses  the  power  to  communicate  his  true  body 
and  blood  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  not  according  to  the 
peculiarities  of  the  human,  but  according  to  the  pecu- 
liarities of  the  Divine  nature." 

The  substance  of  the  foregoing  communication  is, 
that  Jesus,  though  still  God-man,  possesses  absolute 
Divinity,  and  thus  continues,  notwithstanding  his  hypo- 
static connection  with  humanity,  to  be  omniscient, 
omnipresent,  and  almighty,  and  that — such  being  the 
case — his  glorified  body  is  necessarily  capable  of  the 
most  facile  and  unbounded  ubiquity.  If  this  statement 
was  true,  it  would  be  easy  to  account  for  the  Peal 
Presence,  under  the  symbols  of  bread  and  wine,  in  the 
Sacrament,  provided  it  could  be  demonstrated  that  a 
body,  however  subtile  it  may  be,  is  exempt  from  the 
laws  of  matter,  and  therefore  independent  of  finiteness 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  tl 

or  space  ;  but  as  it  is  taught  that  the  g-lorified  body  of 
Christ  has  still  flesh  and  blood,  or  the  attributes  of  in- 
violate humanity,  and,  indeed,  must  have,  to  answer  to 
the  words  of  the  institution.  This  is  my  body,  this  is 
my  blood,  etc.,  it  still  more  plainly  and  certainly  follows 
that  the  glorified  body  of  Christ  is  no  more  endowed 
with  the  attribute  of  ubiquity  than  was  his  earthly 
body.  But  I  shall  now  proceed  to  show  that  the 
glorified  body  of  Christ  is  totally  different  from  his 
crucified  or  primeval  body. 

In  the  Epistle  of  Paul  to  the  Philippians,  iii.  21,  we 
are  told  that  Christ  "shall  change  our  vile  body,  that 
it  may  be  fashioned  like  unto  his  glorious  body,"  etc. 
In  view  of  such  positive  teaching  as  this  is,  can  any 
one  longer  doubt  that  the  glorified  body  of  Christ, 
however  excellent  and  ethereal  it  may  be,  cannot  have 
ubiquitous  properties?  Our  bodies  shall  be  hereafter 
like  his  glorified  body.  But,  I  may  be  allowed  to  ob- 
serve, that  our  bodies  must  still  be  the  bodies  of  finite 
beings,  and  therefore  restricted  in  their  mobility ;  and 
as  they  are  to  be  like  the  Saviour's  glorified  body,  the 
Saviour's  glorified  body  must  be  likewise  of  limited 
presence,  and  cannot  possibly  be  ubiquitous  in  the 
Lord's  Supper,  or  simultaneously  in  widely  separate 
and  innumerable  places.  But  as  the  Real  Presence  is 
affirmed  to  be  a  presence  of  flesh  and  blood.  This  is 
my  body,  this  is  my  blood,  etc.,  I  will  now  call  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  Christ's  glorified  body  has  neither 
flesh  nor  blood. 

In  1  Corinthians,  xv.  50,  we  find  the  apostolic  com- 
munication on  this  subject  couched  in  these  decisive 


72  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

words:  "  i^ow  this  I  say,  brethren,  that  flesh  and 
blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  neither  doth 
corruption  inherit  incorruption."  Such  authoritative 
teaching  clears  up,  one  should  think,  the  whole  matter, 
even  to  the  conviction  of  the  most  ultra  ubiquitarian  ; 
for  where  there  is  no  flesh  and  blood,  as  component 
parts  of  Christ's  glorified  body,  there  cannot,  on  any 
principle  of  correct  reasoning,  be  a  real  bodily  presence 
of  his  glorified  humanity:  from  nothing,  nothing  is! 
There  is,  it  seems,  still  one  more  fact  needed  to  put 
this  question  forever,  I  trust,  at  rest,  and  this  we  have 
presented  to  us,  in  a  most  triumphant  form,  as  well  as 
force  of  expression,  in  Luke,  xxiv.  36-40  :  "  And  as 
they  thus  spake,  Jesus  himself  stood  in  the  midst  of 
them,  and  saith  unto  them.  Peace  be  unto  you.  But 
they  were  terrified  and  affrighted,  and  supposed  that 
they  had  seen  a  spirit.  And  he  said  unto  them.  Why 
are  ye  troubled  ?  and  why  do  thoughts  arise  in  your 
hearts  ?  Behold  my  hands  and  my  feet,  that  it  is  I  my- 
self: handle  me,  and  see  ;  for  a  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and 
bones,  as  ye  see  me  have.  And  when  he  had  thus 
spoken,  he  showed  them  his  hands  and  his  feet." 

It  appears  from  the  purport  of  the  preceding  pas- 
sage, that  Jesus,  suddenly  presenting  himself  among 
his  disciples,  they  mistook  him  for  a  spirit,  and  were, 
accordingly,  much  affrighted  ;  and  that,  to  undeceive 
them,  our  Lord  called  attention  to  two  important  cir- 
cumstances, forcibly  elucidative  of  some  of  the  princi- 
ples of  psychology,  namely,  that  "  a  spirit  hath  not  flesh 
and  bones,"  as  they  saw  him  have  ;  and  that  a  spirit — 
an  inhabitant  of  the  celestial  world — cannot  be  seen 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  Y3 

and  liandled.  This  plain,  solemn  Christ-teaching  ought 
to  satisfy  every  impartial  and  intelligent  person  that 
the  body  of  Christ  in  heaven  is  so  entirely  different 
from  the  body  of  Christ  on  earth  that  the  doctrine  of 
the  Real  Presence  can  no  longer  pretend  to  a  sem- 
blance of  a  Scripture  basis,  or  a  just  claim  to  the 
serious  attention  of  mankind.  Indeed,  the  bulwark  of 
Old  Lutheranism,  the  Warlburg  of  its  churchly 
strength  and  hope,  can,  it  appears,  hardly  hold  out 
much  longer,  unless  it  adopts,  as  I  fondly  hope  it  may, 
a  different  plan  of  defense  I 

PARAGRAPH    III. 

Christ  sits  on  tlin  Right  Hand  of  God,  and,  therefore,  his  Glorified  Body  must, 
say  tlie  Advocates  of  a  Real  Tresence,  possess  Ubi<inity. 

Agreeably  to  the  Form  of  Concord,  "  God's  right 
hand  is  synonymous  with  omnipresence,  and  Christ, 
though  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  as  God-man, 
nevertheless  reigns  over  all  things,  and  enjoys  a  rank 
or  pre-eminence  to  which  neither  man  nor  angel  can 
attain."  Numerous  passages  of  Scripture,  treating  of 
this  interesting  and  absorbing  subject,  speak  of  the 
Saviour  as  "  aitiing  on  the  right  hand  of  God" ;  as 
^'standing  in  the  midst  of  the  throne";  as  "  ascending 
up  where  he  w^as  before"  ;  as  "  coming  to  the  Father" ; 
as  "  being  received  up  into  heaven,  and  sitting  on  the 
right  hand  of  God";  as  "ascending  to  his  Father  and 
our  Father,  to  his  God  and  our  God,"  etc. 

The  doctrine  advanced  in  the  above-cited  passage 
from  the  Form  of  Concord,  which  is  said  essentially 

7 


Y4  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

to  express  Luther's  views  on  the  subject,  is  entirely 
conformable  to  the  usual  ideas  which  an  enlightened 
mind  entertains  of  God,  considered  as  the  absolute 
Deity,  possessing  the  exalted  attributes  of  infinity  and 
omnipotence.*  This  exalted  and  adorable  Being  has, 
of  course,  no  throne  ;  does  not  sit ;  has  no  right  hand, 
etc. ;  and  Jesus — our  gracious  and  magnanimous  Re- 
deemer— cannot,  therefore,  stand  in  the  midst  of  the 
throne,  or  sit  on  the  right  hand  of  God.  Such  senti- 
ments and  expressions  are  simply  anthropomorijMsms, 
to  which  a  wise  teacher  will  now  and  then  adapt  him- 
self, or,  in  other  words,  the  language  of  man  in  a  rude 
state  of  society,  whose  God  is  the  image  or  reflection 
of  himself,  possessing  manners  and  observing  practices 
similar  to  his  own. 

To  sit  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  therefore,  as  Christ 
is  said  to  do,  can  only  mean  to  possess  a  rank  imply- 
ing exceedingly  great  glory,  honor,  and  power ;  such 
glory,  honor,  and  power,  however,  as  are  compatible 
with  the  relation  and  functions  intermediate  between 
a  perfect  Godhood,  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  perfect 
manhood  on  the  other.  Hence  the  idea  of  Luther 
that  Christ,  as  Logos  or  Son  of  God,  in  his  hypostatic 

*  Whether  God  is  omnipresent  in  the  infinitude  of  his  being,  or  is 
omnipresent  only  in  the  operations  of  his  laws,  and  therefore 
governs  the  world  agreeably  to  these  laws,  which  must,  of  course, 
be  fixed  and  immutable,  I  do  not  pretend  positively  to  decide,  but 
incline  to  the  latter  idea,  which  requires  man  to  humble  himself 
before  the  Almighty,  and  learn  his  will,  instead  of  dictating  to  him, 
and  continuing  in  idleness,  exclaiming,  in  the  pithy  language  of  the 
Proverbs,  "Yet  a  little  sleep,  a  little  slumber,  a  little  folding  of  the 
hands  to  sleep." 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  76 

coQuection  with  humauity,  can  be,  like  the  Father, 
everywhere  present,  or  has  absolute  ubiquity,  cannot 
be  entertained  for  a  moment,  and  I  shall  only  add 
that  I  have  already  amply  proved  this  hypothesis  to 
be  untenable,  both  from  the  laws  of  matter  and  from 
the  similitude  of  our  bodies  with  Christ's  body  in  the 
celestial  state,  and  shown  that  if  our  bodies  shall  be  like 
bis,  as  is  emphatically  taught, —  it  must  follow  that  as 
we,  being  finite  beings,  cannot  inhabit  ubiquitous  bodies, 
— his  body  must,  consequently,  also  possess  but  local 
presence,  or,  in  other  words,  be  subject  to  mobilit}^ 
But  while  I  deem  it  unnecessary  to  go  over  ground 
already  pretty  thoroughly  explored,  I  shall  furnish  a 
few  more  arguments  from  relevant  sources,  varying 
somewhat  from  the  preceding  more  in  traits  of  illustra- 
tion than  in  novelty  of  matter,  and  supplying,  in  some 
degree,  new  and  interesting  exhibitions  of  facts,  as  well 
as  additional  force  of  evidence  upon  the  sul)ject. 

These  arguments  thus  characterized,  though  other 
Scriptures  of  equal  cogency  bearing  upon  the  ques- 
tion might  readily  be  cited,  are  based  upon  the  follow- 
ing texts  in  the  Gospel  according  to  John :  xii.  26,  xiv. 
2-4.  and  xvii.  24,  which  contain  most  welcome  words, 
pregnant  with  profound  thoughts,  and  conveying  at 
once  instruction  and  comfort  to  the  devout  and  docile 
Christian:  "  If  any  man  serve  me,  let  him  follow  me  ; 
and  where  I  am,  there  shall  also  my  servant  be,"  etc. 
"  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions  :  if  it  were 
not  so,  I  would  have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place 
for  you.  And  if  I  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you,  I 
will  come  again,  and  receive  you  unto  myself;  that 


76  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be  also.  And  whither  I  go 
ye  know,  and  the  way  ye  know."  "Father,!  will 
that  they  also,  whom  thou  hast  given  me,  be  with  me 
where  I  am  ;  that  they  may  behold  my  glory,  which 
thou  hast  given  me,"  etc. 

In  this  interesting  portion  of  Divine  revelation,  con- 
cerning the  Christian's  future  existence  and  abode,  the 
Saviour  invites  attention  to  the  facts — which  must  be 
of  paramount  interest  to  the  heavenward-bound  pil- 
grim— that  the  victorious  Christians  shall  hereafter  be 
where  their  Lord  is ;  that  our  Lord  has  prepared  a 
place  for  them,  and  will  come  and  receive  them  unto 
himself — in  the  place  prepared  for  them  ;  and  that  they 
shall  then  have  an  opportunity  to  behold  the  glory 
conferred  upon  him  by  the  Father. 

Judging  from  this  important  and  most  gratifying 
intelligence,  it  is  evident  that  not  only  the  future,  re- 
deemed man  shall  occupy  a  distinct  abode, — a  place  in 
the  Father's  house,  especially  prepared  for  him  by  his 
Saviour, — but  that  the  Saviour  himself  will  occupy  it 
with  him,  for  his  prayer  is,  "  That  those  whom  the 
Father  has  given  him  might  be  where  he  is."  Hence  as 
the  Christian,  a  finite  creature,  is  hereafter  to  share  an 
abode  in  common  with  his  Lord,  though  he  is  clearly  in 
a  condition  which  renders  him  incapable  of  ubiquity, 
being  confined  to  place,  it  follows  that  our  Lord,  being 
similarly  confined,  must  likewise  be  non-ubiquitous, 
he  being,  according  to  his  own  Divine  teaching,  a 
fellow-inmate  of  the  same  exalted  and  Elysian  locality, 
the  Father's  house,  and,  therefore,  evidently  not  in  a 
state  admitting  of  ubiquity. 


THE  LORD'S  SUFFER.  77 


SIECTIOIsr     IX. 
THE  LORD'S  SUPPER  IS  A  MEMORIAL. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Christ  our  Passover. 

• 

The  renowned  anniversary  institution  among  the 
Jews,  denominated  the  Passover,  was  a  divinely-ap- 
pointed feast  or  sacred  festival,  whose  origin,  accord- 
ing to  Professor  Lepsius,  the  eminent  archaeologist,  is 
traceable  on  the  hoary  page  of  history  to  the  remote 
era,  dating  back  thirteen  centuries  anterior  to  the  birth 
of  Christ.  Its  celebration,  which  was  at  once  solemn 
and  magnificent,  occurred  about  the  time  of  the  ver- 
nal equinox,  the  season  of  nature's  rejuvenescence  in 
Palestine,  and  was  accompanied  with  sacred  rites  and 
jo3'ous  demonstrations.  The  important  object  which 
was  designed  to  be  attained  in  its  institution  was, 
"  To  commemorate,"  writes  the  learned  lexicogra- 
pher. Dr.  Webster,  "  the  providential  escape  of  the 
Hebrews  in  Egypt,  when  God,  Smiting  the  first-born 
of  the  Egyptians,  im^sed  over  the  houses  of  the  Israel- 
ites, which  were  marked  with  the  blood  of  the  paschal 
lamb." 

7* 


78  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

The  paschal  lamb  was  selected  by  Providence  as  a 
suitable  sacrificial  offering  on  the  momentous  event 
which  resulted  in  the  deliverance  of  the  Jews  from  a 
protracted  and  cruel  bondage  in  the  land  of  the  Pha- 
raohs, as  exuberant  in  fertility  as  it  was  illustrious  in 
arts  and  sciences ;  and  it  was  through  means  of  its 
blood,  now  become  eminently  precious,  and  of  national 
significance,  properly  and  seasonably  applied — that  the 
chosen  people  of  Jehovah  were  taught  to  avert  the 
doom  which  awaited  the  obstinate  and  chastised  the 
guilty  Egyptians. 

That  the  Jewish  passover  was  typical  of  Christ,  and 
that  Christ  must,  therefore,  possess  passoveriaUfunc- 
tions,  is  the  repeated  and  express  teaching  of  the  Xew 
Testament.  Whence  it  follows  that,  as  "the  Lamb  of 
God,  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world,"  John,  i. 
29,  Christ  is  the  paschal  lamb  of  the  New  Testament, 
whose  blood  is  designed  to  save  not  a  single  nation 
merely,  but  a  whole  world  "lying  in  wickedness." 
This,  indeed,  salient  fact  is  generally  rather  insinuated 
than  expressed,  premised  oftener  than  proved  or  illus- 
trated ;  yet  the  Gospel  furnishes  testimony  on  this  sub- 
ject which  amply  sustains  the  proposition,  that  Christ 
is  indeed  our  passover. 

The  first  passage  which  contains  a  positive  state- 
ment to  this  effect,  and  to  which  attention  is  here  in- 
vited, is  that  in  1  Corinthians,  v.  t,  where  the  apostle, 
in  true  paschal  style  T)f  preparation  for  the  celebration 
of  "  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread,"  exhorts  his  readers 
to  purge  out  the  old  leaven,  that  they  might  be  a 
new  lump,  "  For,"  continues  he,  "  even  Christ  our  pass- 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  79 

over  is  sacrificed  for  us."  This  text,  though  concise,  is 
lucid  and  directly  to  the  point,  and  not  only  recalls  to 
mind  the  passover-festival  and  the  customs  of  the  Jews, 
observed  preparatory  to  its  celebration,  but  it  also  un- 
mistakably conveys  the  weighty  idea,  that  Christ  is 
foreshadowed  or  represented  by  that  ancient  and  ven- 
erable Jewish  festival :  Exodus,  xii.  15. 

If,  now,  we  compare  the  peculiarities  by  which  the 
paschal  lamb  was  required,  by  the  Divine  lawgiver, 
to  be  distinguished,  in  order  to  be  suitably  qualified 
for  so  sacred  and  important  a  purpose,  or  the  conduct 
which  was  to  be  carefully  observed  towards  it  at  the 
festival-board,  with  the  corresponding  traits  apper- 
taining to  Christ,  our  paschal  sacrifice,  or  similar  for- 
bearance manifested  towards  him  on  the  cross,  we 
shall  not  hesitate  to  recognize  a  decided  typical  con- 
nection. Having  enjoined,  Exodus,  xii.  46,  that  the 
paschal  lamb,  in  its  individual  distribution,  appropri- 
ated either  to  a  single  family,  sufficiently  numerous,  or 
divided  among  several  households  of  the  required 
number,  Exodus,  xii.  4,  should  be  consumed  by  the 
participants,  within  the  limits  of  the  domicile  dedicated 
to  the  festive  solemnity,  and  that  no  part  of  it  should 
be  "  carried  abroad,"  the  celestial  legislator  adds : 
"  Neither  shall  ye  break  a  bone  thereof"  In  Numbers, 
ix.  12,  the  prohibition,  not  to  break  a  bone  of  the 
passover-lamb,  is  repeated,  and  thus,  consequently, 
increased  force  and  significance  added  to  it  by  the 
repetition.  These  passages  find  their  antitype  in  the 
Gospel  recorded  in  JoLu,  xix.  32,  33,  36,  and  are  thus 
admirably  illustrated  :  "  Then  came  the  soldiers,  and 


80  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

brake  the  legs  of  the  first,  and  of  the  other  which  was 
crucified  with  him.  But  when  they  came  to  Jesus,  and 
saw  that  he  was  dead  already,  they  brake  not  his  legs  : 
for  these  things  were  done,  that  the  scripture  should 
be  fulfilled,  A  bone  of  him  shall  not  be  broken." 

To  be  properly  fitted  for  the  passover-offering,  the 
paschal  lamb  had  to  be  "  a  male  of  the  first  year,"  a 
male  a  year  old,  and  "  without  blemish."  (Exodus,  xii. 
5.)  The  exact  similitude  to  this  requirement,  if  we 
except  the  age  of  the  lamb,  is  at  once  recognized  in 
the  description  of  Christ,  our  passover,  given  by  St. 
Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  ix.  13,  14:  "If 
the  blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats,  and  the  ashes  of  an 
heifer  sprinkling  the  unclean,  sanctifieth  to  the  puri- 
fying of  the  flesh :  how  much  more  shall  the  blood  ot 
Christ,  who  through  the  eternal  Spirit  ofi'ered  himself 
without  spot  to  God,  purge  your  conscience  from  dead 
works  to  serve  the  living  God?"  If,  now,  we  advert 
to  the  First  Epistle  of  Peter,  i.  18-19,  we  shall  find  an 
ascription,  though  somewhat  amplified,  of  paschal  at- 
tributes to  Christ,  essentially  corresponding  to  the  pre- 
ceding quotation  :  "  Ye  know  that  ye  were  not  re- 
deemed with  corruptible  things,  as  silver  and  gold, 
from  your  vain  conversation  received  by  tradition 
from  your  fathers;  but  with  the  precious  blood  of 
Christ,  as  of  a  lamb  icithout  blemish  and  without  sj^ot.^^ 
From  all  these  instances  of  a  close  agreement  of  cir- 
cumstances and  identicaluess  of  design,  between  type 
and  antitype,  it  is  evident  that  Christ  is  to  mankind 
what  the  paschal  lamb  was  to  the  Jews,  and  that  he 
is  emphatically  our  passover. 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  81 

I  shall  next  proceed  indisputably  to  establish  the 
fact,  that  the  Jewish  passover  was  a  memorial,  or,  ia 
other  words,  that  it  expressed  mnemonic  design,  and 
for  this  purpose  simply  refer  to  Exodus,  xii.  25-2T  ; 
"  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  ye  be  come  to  the 
land  which  the  Lord  will  give  you,  according  as  he 
hath  promised,  that  ye  shall  keep  this  service.  And  it 
shall  come  to  pass,  when  your  children  shall  say  unto 
you,  What  mean  ye  by  this  service  ?  that  ye  shall 
say.  It  is  the  sacrifice  of  the  Lord's  passover,  who 
passed  over  the  houses  of  the  children  of  Israel  in 
Egypt,  when  he  smote  the  Egyptians,  and  delivered 
our  houses."  Here  the  inquiry  of  the  successive  gen- 
erations of  Hebrew  posterity,  about  the  meaning  of 
the  paschal  rite,  finds  solution  in  reminiscence,  which 
addresses  itself  to  the  memory  as  a  great  and  solemn 
fact  living  in  history;  and  each  time  the  Jews  cele- 
brated the  passover,  they  did  it  in  remembrance  of  the 
momentous  event  which  resulted  in  the  emancipation 
from  Egyptian  servitude.  Hence  the  Lord's  Supper, 
being  pre-eminently  our  passover-festival,  is  likewise  a 
memorial, — that  is,  it  is  commemorative  of  the  stupen- 
dous act  in  the  vicarious  life  of  Christ,  culminating  in 
the  death  of  the  cross,  in  our  emancipation  from  sin, 
and  death,  and  hell. 

These  most  striking  facts  I  shall  bring  out  more 
prominently,  in  a  comparison  of  the  words  in  Exodus, 
xii.  11  :  "  And  ye  shall  eat  it  in  haste  ;  it  is  the  Lord's 
passover,"  with  those  of  our  Lord  in  the  words  of  the 
sacramental  institution,  "  Take,  eat, — this  bread  ; — this 
is  my  body."   Now  the  words,  It  is  the  Lord's  passover, 


82  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

cannot  mean  that  the  paschal  feast  which  the  Jews 
were  urged  to  eat  in  haste  was  the  passovei*  itself,  in  a 
literal  sense,  for  in  the  words  which  immediately  follow 
we  read  :  "  For  I  will  pass  through  the  land  of  Egypt 
this  night,"  etc.  Hence  the  paschal  feast,  to  be  eaten 
in  haste,  was  not  literally,  but  only  in  a  metonymic 
sense,  the  passover,  while  the  Lord  only  was  the  real 
passover  ;  for  it  was  "  he  that  passed  through  the  laud 
of  Egypt,  and  smote  all  its  first-born  both  of  man  and 
beast,"  and  his  will  that  expressed  itself  in  the  enact- 
ment, "  The  blood  shall  be  to  you  for  a  token  upon  the 
houses  where  you  are  :  and  where  I  see  the  blood,  I 
iDill  pass  over  you,^^  etc.  Of  this  terrible,  punitive  act 
of  the  Lord,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  his  signal  mercy 
on  the  other,  the  passover-feast,  which  was  to  be  eaten 
in  haste,  was  merely  a  memorial,  and,  therefore,  the 
phrase.  It  is  the  Lord's  passover,  is  elliptical,  and 
means  that  it  denotes,  signifies,  or  represents  the  Lord's 
twofold  passage,  bearing  alternatively  punishment  or 
blessing  in  its  train,  through  the  guilt-stained  land 
of  Egypt.  No  Jew,  with  ordinary  intelligence,  could 
possibly  have  understood  it  otherwise,  or  could  have 
been  stupid  enough  to  think  that  he  was  eating  the 
Lord  himself,  who  only  was,  properly  speaking,  the 
passover,  and  of  whose  passover  the  Jewish  feast  was 
simply  a  yearly,  hebdomadal,  and  reminiscent  celebra- 
tion. Now,  who  is  so  blind  as  not  to  perceive  a  most 
palpable  and  striking  likeness  between  the  injunction, 
Eat  in  haste ;  it  is  the  Lord's  passover,  and  the  words, 
Take,  eat ;  this  is  my  body  ?  If  the  former  is  mne- 
monic in  its  design,  as  is  certain  beyond  a  shadow  of 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  83 

a  doubt,  the  latter  must  be  so  too,  for  they  arc  essen- 
tially the  same  in  import  as  well  as  in  phraseology, 
and  alike  celebrate  momentous  soterial  events,  which 
are  facts  boldly  standing  out  in  history,  and  can  be 
known  and  appreciated  only  through  the  historic  chan- 
nel of  memory.  I  therefore  feel  myself  amply  war- 
ranted in  assuming  the  position  that  the  words, 
This  is  my  body,  etc.,  affirmed  of  the  sacramental 
bread,  have  the  sense  of  mean,  denole,  symbolize,  my 
body,  etc.,  and  can  no  more  be  taken  literally,  or  inter- 
preted to  imply  an  actual  eating  of  the  body  and  blood 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  than  the  words.  Eat  in  haste  ; 
it  —  the  paschal  feast  —  is  the  Lord's  passover,  and 
thus  made  to  imply  the  eating  of  Jehovah !  I  add, 
that  when  human  devices  assume  so  extravagant  and 
appalling  a  character  as  to  make  it  necessary  to  point 
out,  at  once,  their  absurdity  and  dangerous  tendency, 
it  seems  to  become  incumbent  on  an  author  to  employ 
language  which  may  wear  the  semblance  of  irrever- 
ence, without,  however,  a  remote  intention  that  such 
should  be  the  case,  and  which  is,  therefore,  to  be  attrib- 
uted to  the  urgency  of  the  occasion,  or  the  desperate 
nature  of  the  subject. 


84  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 


CHAPTER   11. 

Christ,  the  Founder  of  the  New  Testament. 

In  entering  upon  the  subject  of  the  present  chapter, 
we  meet  with  new,  and,  I  conceive,  forcible  arguments 
in  favor  of  the  position  advanced  in  these  sheets,  and 
carrying  with  them  overwhelming  evidence  against  the 
tenableness  and  even  plausibility  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Real  Presence.  Attention  is  called,  in  the  first  place, 
to  the  term  cup  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  Of  it,  our  Lord 
says,  "  Drink  ye  all  of  it;  for  this  is  my  blood  of  the 
New  Testament,"  etc.  Here  we  meet  with  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  rhetoric  figure  called  metonymy,  which  has 
the  distinguishing  peculiarity  that  it  substitutes  one 
word  for  another.  Thus,  the  cup  cannot  be  "  the  blood 
of  the  K'ew  Testament,"  as  it  is  simply  a  chalice  or 
sacramental  vessel,  designed  to  convey  the  wine  to  the 
communicants  ;  nor  can  we  "  drink  of  it,"  for  we 
neither  do  nor  can  drink  cups  of  any  sort,  whether 
sacred  or  profane.  Clearly,  then,  the  name  cwp  here 
is  the  substitute  for  the  wine  in  the  cup :  this  people 
can  and  do  drink;  and  this  must,  therefore,  have  been 
meant  when  the  disciples  were  requested  by  our  Lord, 
agreeably  to  a  rhetoric  trope,  to  drink  of  the  cup.  But 
even  the  wine  itself  is  a  metonymy ;  for  it  can  no  more 
be  Christ's  blood  than  the  cup,  but  is  a  substitute  in 
the  Syriac  language,  in  which  the  Saviour  spoke  when 
he  instituted  the  Lord's  Supper,  for  such  phrase  as  the 


THE  LORD'S   SUPPER.  85 

following:  this  signifios,  this  represents,  etc.,  my  blood. 
This  exposition,  it  really  seems,  ought  to  be  regarded 
and  hailed  as  plain,  natural,  true,  nay,  self-evident,  by 
every  intelligent  and  truth-loving  mind. 

If  now  we  pass  in  review  the  words  of  the  sacra- 
mental institution,  in  reference  to  the  bread,  we  shall 
find  that  Jesus  designated  it  as  his  body,  and  hence 
discover  a  striking  analogy,  both  of  expression  and 
import,  between  the  bread,  the  cup,  and  the  wine;  and 
as  the  latter  are  tropes, — shown  to  be  such, — and  gen- 
erally instinctively  taken  as  such  by  the  majority  of 
mankind,  being  not  literally  what  they  are  affirmed  to 
be,  but  what  they  figuratively  imply  to  be,  it  follows 
that  the  former — the  bread — must  be  interpreted  in  the 
same  way,  and  mean,  not  what  it  is  ostensibly  affirmed 
to  be,  but  what  it  signifies  or  represents.  Nor,  I  pre- 
sume, can  it  be  deemed  an  easier  matter  to  eat  the  real 
body  of  our  Lord,  in  the  hoslia  or  consecrated  wafer, 
than  to  drink  of  the  cup  ;  the  one  being  fully  as  in- 
comprehensible and  impracticable  as  the  other. 

As,  therefore,  the  cup  denotes  the  wine,  and  the 
wnne  the  blood  of  Christ,  shed  or  poured  out  for  us, 
"  for  the  remission  of  sins,"  in  founding  the  New-Testa- 
ment scheme  or  economy  of  grace,  so  the  bread  denotes 
the  body  of  Clu'ist,  given  for  us  ;  and  both  the  bread  and 
the  cup  or  the  wine  are  incidents  or  conditions  in  the 
same  paramount  proposition,  that  Christ  is  about  to 
die  for  us,  and  thus,  in  his  death,  to  give  his  body  and 
shed  his  blood  sacrificially  in  our  behalf,  as  essential 
to  the  plan  to  institute  the  New  Testament  dispensa- 
ti<m,  and  hence  to  open  the  way  of  salvation  to  sin- 

8 


86  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

ful,  heaven-destined  man.  Such  being  the  fact  in  the 
case,  the  body  and  the  blood  of  Christ  are  to  be  sought 
and  found  on  the  cross,  whither,  accordingly,  the 
Lord's  Supper  points  our  faith  and  our  hope,  and 
where  only  the  eucharistic  commemoration  of  the  ex- 
piatory Christ-sacrifice  can  softly  and  safely  lay  our 
weary,  fainting  souls  in  the  mercy-breathing  bosom  of 
the  great  Redeemer.  I  will  only  further  remark  here, 
that  the  important  theme  of  the  mnemonic  feature  in 
the  Lord's  Supper — at  once  so  singularly  expressive 
and  prominent — will  be  briefly  resumed  in  the  sequel 
of  this  chapter. 

In  the  treatment  of  the  present  subject,  it  wmU  be 
necessary  to  direct  our  inquiry  with  more  immediate 
reference  to  "the  blood  of  the  New  Testament." 
In  making  contracts  or  covenants,  especially  of  a 
solemn,  religious  character,  it  was  anciently  the  prac- 
tice, both  among  Jews  and  Gentiles,  to  ratify  them 
with  the  blood  of  sacrificial  victims.  The  staining  of 
the  posts  and  lintels  of  the  doors  of  the  Hebrew 
houses,  with  the  blood  of  the  paschal  lamb,  was  simply 
the  seal  and  symbol  of  a  sacred  contract  between  Je- 
hovah and  the  Chosen  People,  the  meaning  of  which 
w^as:  if  you  tlms  use  the  blood  of  the  paschal  lamb 
as  you  have  been  directed,  you  shall  be  saved ;  but  if 
you  do  not  use  it  thus,  the  appalling  and  inevitable 
fate  of  the  doomed  Egyptians  will  await  you  I 

With  a  view  further  to  illustrate  and  confirm  this 
interesting  subject,  on  which  hinges  so  much  valuable 
exegesis,  attention  is  invited  to  Exodus,  xxiv.  1-8, 
where  we  find  the  record  of  a  covenant  or  testament 


Tilt:  LORD'S  SUFFER.  Si 

made  between  God  and  the  Jewish  people.  Havinf^ 
been  intrusted  by  Jehovah  with  the  terms  and  object 
of  the  covenant  which  he  was  about  to  establish  with 
the  Israelites,  Moses  descended  from  the  craggy  heiglits 
of  Mount  Sinai,  and  appearing  among  the  people,  who 
were  anxiously,  perhaps  impatiently,  awaiting  his  re- 
turn, he  told  them  "  all  the  words  of  the  Lord,  and 
all  the  judgments:  and  all  the  people  answered  with 
one  voice,  and  said,  All  the  words  which  the  Lord 
hath  said  will  we  do.  And  Moses  wrote  all  the 
words  of  the  Lord,  and  rose  up  early  in  the  morning, 
and  builded  an  altar  under  the  hill,  and  twelve  pillars, 
according  to  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  And  he  sent 
young  men  of  the  children  of  Israel,  which  offered  burnt- 
offerings,  and  sacrificed  peace-offerings  of  oxen  unto  the 
Lord.  And  Moses  took  half  of  the  blood,  and  put  it  in 
basins  ;  and  half  of  the  blood  he  sprinkled  on  the  altar. 
And  he  took  the  book  of  the  covenant,  and  read  in  the 
audience  of  the  people :  and  they  said,  All  that  the 
Lord  hath  said  will  we  do,  and  be  obedient.  And 
Moses  took  the  blood,  and  sprinkled  it  on  the  people, 
and  said,  Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  which  the 
Lord  hath  made  with  you  concerning  all  these  words." 
In  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  ix.  19-22,  we  find  a 
concise  statement  of  the  extensive  range  and  signifi- 
cant import  of  this  ancient  and  impressive  custom, 
especially  verified  by  reference  to  Jewish  history,  and 
hence  learn  still  further,  that  contracts  or  covenants 
were  ordinarily  hallowed  and  confirmed  as  late  even  as 
the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  blood :  the  blood  denoting,  at  the  same 


88  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

time,  as  has  been  already  stated,  that  the  party  in  the 
contract  that  should  break  or  violate  the  conditions  of 
the  covenant,  which  it  was  possible  only  for  the  Israel- 
ites, the  weaker  and  peccant  party  of  the  contracting 
powers,  to  do,  should  fare  no  better  than  the  slaugh- 
tered victim  whose  blood  was  spilled  on  the  solemn 
occasion.  "  When  Moses,"  thus  writes  the  sacred  his- 
torian, "  had  spoken  every  precept  to  all  the  people 
according  to  the  law,  he  took  the  blood  of  calves  and 
of  goats,  with  water,  and  scarlet  wool,  and  hyssop,  and 
sprinkled  both  the  book,  and  all  the  people,  saying, 
This  is  the  blood  of  the  testament  which  God  hath 
enjoined  unto  you.  Moreover  he  sprinkled  with  blood 
both  the  tabernacle,  and  all  the  vessels  of  the  ministry. 
And  almost  all  things  are  by  the  law  purged  with 
blood;  and  without  shedding  of  blood  is  no  remission." 

Now,  it  was  substantially  in  conformity  to  this  He- 
brew custom  that  Christ  instituted  the  New  Testa- 
ment; that,  to  render  it  valid,  he  died,  ay,  gave  his 
body  and  shed  his  blood,  "  to  cleanse  us  from  all  sin"  ; 
that  all  that  should  faithfully  observe  the  conditions  of 
the  contract  thus  entered  into  with  the  Saviour  should 
be  saved  ;  but  that  all,  on  the  contrary,  that  should  re- 
ject or  violate  it,  should  forfeit  their  interest  in  his 
vicarious  death,  and  perish  miserably,  without  the  pale 
and  without  the  hope  of  redemption. 

A  main  question,  therefore,  arises.  In  what  way  or 
with  what  sentiments  ought  we  to  celebrate  this  ex- 
piatory or  vicarious  death  of.  our  Lord  when  we  gather 
around  the  sacramental  table  ?  The  Symbolist  brother 
confidently  replies,  We  celebrate  it  worthily,  in  fact,  in 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  89 

the  only  worthy  and  eminently  proper  way,  if  we  par- 
take orally  of  the  Saviour's  body  and  blood  in,  with, 
and  under  the  external  signs  of  bread  and  wine  I  Not 
thus,  I  am  thoroughly  persuaded,  teaches  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  On  the  contrary,  he  says,  Luke  xxii. 
19,  "This  is  my  body," — denotes  my  body:  ^' this  do 
in  remembrance  of  ??ie?."  Clearly,  then,  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  memorial  rite,  and  must, 
accordingly,  be  chiefly,  though,  as  I  shall  show  here- 
after, not  exclusively,  valued  as  a  mnemonic  institu- 
tion. Confirmatory  of  these  views,  both  apparently  as 
scriptural  as  they  are  reasonable,  St.  Paul  writes,  1 
Corinthians,  xi.  23-26,  That  he  had  received  his  in- 
formation on  the  subject  of  the  institution  and  design 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  "  of  the  Lord," — evidently  imply- 
ing that  it  was  by  a  special  revelation.  And  what  does 
the  Lord  say  to  the  Apostle  communicants  should 
sedulously  aim  to  impress  upon  their  minds  when  they 
devoutly  participate  in  the  solemn  sacramental  feast? 
I  answer.  That  Christ's  body  was  broken — on  the  cross, 
of  course — for  them,  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  Saviour 
died  for  them,  and  that  they  should  diligently  and  rev- 
erently observe  two  things  in  reference  to  this  impor- 
tant fact,  both  whenever  they  came  together  to  cele- 
brate the  Lord's  Supper  and  while  they  lived  :  first, 
remember  that  Christ  died  for  them,  and  humbly  and 
immovably  obey  his  sacred  injunction,  "  Do  this  in  re- 
membrance of  me" ;  "  This  do  ye,  as  often  as  ye  drink 
it,  in  remembrance  of  me";  and  secondly,  that,  "As 
often  as  we  eat  this  bread'''' — not  the  Saviour's  veritable 
body  and  blood — "  and  drink  this  cup,"  we  should  "  show 
8* 


90  TEE  DOCTRINE   OF 

the  Lord's  death" — proclaim  it  to  the  world — "  till  he 
come."  To  sum  up,  in  a  few  words,  the  pith  and  drift 
of  this  very  opportune  Pauline  communication  of  a 
Divine  and  special  revelation  to  the  Christian  Church, 
on  the  proper  nature  and  design  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
I  may  state  that  its  language  is  at  once  simple  and 
easily  understood ;  that  it  cannot  but  prove  satisfac- 
tory and  convincing  to  the  candid  searcher  after  truth ; 
and  that,  finally,  as  must  be  evident  to  even  an 
ordinary  understanding,  it  possesses  the  inappreciable 
advantage  as  well  as  the  delightful  assurance  to  have 
the  approbation  of  God  and  the  triumph  of  truth  on 
its  side. 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  91 


SECTionsr     III. 

THE    LORD'S    SUPPER,  beside    being    a    COMMEMORATIVE 
ORDINANCE,  is  aho  a  MEANS  OF  GRACE. 


That  the  Lord's  Supper  is  eminently  a  commemo- 
rative rite  I  have  clearly  shown,  I  think,  in  the  im- 
mediately preceding  chapters,  both  from  the  natural 
purport  of  its  language  and  the  plain  object  of  its  in- 
stitution. It  being,  as  is  demonstrable,  as  a  Christian 
rite,  a  kind  of  parting  memento  affectionately  confided 
by  Christ  to  his  followers, — a  sacred  keepsake,  virtu- 
ally, inscribed  with  the  parting  words  of  the  Saviour- 
friend,  Forget  me  not  I  That  it  is,  however,  at  the 
same  time  exceedingly  well  adapted  to  promote  the 
paramount  interests  of  a  pious  and  holy  life,  in  the 
sincere  and  zealous  believer,  there  can  be  no  reason- 
able doubt.  It  is  peculiarly  fitted  to  carry  back  the 
exercise  of  memory  on  the  rapid  wings  of  time  to  the 
tragic  scenes  enacted  on  the  cross,  where  Christ,  ex- 
piring, impressed  the  blood-stained  seal  of  hope  and 
pardon — theaign-manual  of  his  kingdom — on  the  Magna 
Charta  of  his  world-redemption :  the  wonder  and 
glory  of  the  love  of  God  to  man.  While  thus  the 
agonies  and  death  of  Christ  are  recalled  vividly  to  the 
mind  of  the  communicant,  tlic  Sacrament  awakens  in 
it  the  most  profound  gratitude  towards  the  gracious 


92  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

and  magnanimous  Redeemer.  It  seasonably  brings 
home  to  us  in  a  most  pertinent  and  forcible  manner, 
while  surrounding  the  sacramental  table,  the  signifi- 
cant fact,  that  we  all  have  urgent  need  of  a  Saviour; 
that  the  Saviour  has  died  for  all,  irrespective  of  person 
or  race ;  and  that,  in  the  sight  of  God,  we  are  thus 
far,  at  least,  equal,  and  should,  therefore,  love  each 
other  with  the  sincere  affection  of  a  common  Christian 
brotherhood.  Besides,  the  hearts  of  the  communicants 
— under  the  holy  and  blessed  sacramental  influence — 
are  melted  with  devotional  fervor  ;  the  affections 
drawn  out  and  sanctified  ;  and  the  soul,  being  in  effect 
now  happily  laid  open,  it  is  suitably  prepared  for  gra- 
cious Divine  influences,  thus  emphatically  receiving 
the  comfort  and  encouragement  which  Christians  so 
greatly  need  to  a  successful  prosecution  of  their  high 
and  holy  vocation,  while  their  faith  is  rekindled  and 
strengthened,  and  the  hope  of  everlasting  life,  together 
with  the  assurance  of  the  Divine  favor,  lives  and 
flourishes  with  renewed  and  ever-increasing  vigor  in 
their  upward-bound  souls,  sanctified  and  blessed  of 
God.  Animated  by  such  views,  and  governed  by  senti- 
ments like  these.  Professor  S.  S.  Schmucker,  in  his 
"  Elements  of  Popular  Theology,"  writes  thus  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  as  a  means  of  grace :  *'  The  Lord's 
Supper  is  a  symbolic  and  affecting  exhibition  of  the 
facts  of  the  atoning  death  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  of 
the  various  momentously  interesting  relations  of  that 
death  to  the  moral  government  of  the  world  and  the 
salvation  of  sinners.  Xor  are  these  truths  any  the  less 
affecting,  when  these  outward  ordinances — the  Lord's 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  93 

Supper  and  Baptism — are  the  signs  by  whicli  they  are 
presented  to  the  mind,  tlian  when  described  in  words." 

The  views  here  expressed  by  this  eminent  divine,  I 
venture  to  remark,  agree  essentially  with  my  own,  nor 
are  they  less  accordant  with  those  advanced  by  the 
learned  and  eloquent  Mosheim,  in  his  "  Ecclesiastical 
History,"  etc.,  when  treating  of  the  rites  and  ceremo- 
nies used  in  the  Christian  Church  during  the  first  cen- 
tury:  "The  rites  instituted  by  Christ  himself,"  he 
assures  us,  "  were  only  two  in  number,  and  these  were 
designed  to  continue  to  the  end  of  the  Church  here 
below,  without  any  variation.  These  rites  were  bap- 
tism and  the  holy  supper,  which  are  not  to  be  consid- 
ered as  mere  ceremonies,  nor  yet  as  symbolical  repre- 
sentations only,  but  also  as  ordinances  accompanied 
with  a  sanctifying  influence  upon  the  heart  and  the 
affections  of  true  Christians,"  etc.* 

Of  faith  and  repentance  I  shall  not  speak  here,  as 
they  are  universally  admitted  to  rank  pre-eminently 
among  the  means  of  grace,  emphatically  of  saving 
grace  too,  and  to  be  in  respect  to  human  agency  in 
redemption  what  the  death  of  the  Saviour — its  Divine, 
supernatural  element,  is — a  sine  qua  non,  or,  in  other 
words,  an  indispensable  condition.  Though  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  especially  instrumental  in  procuring  for  us 


*  It  was  not  until  some  time  in  the  second  century  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  according  to  Mosheim,  that  the  notion  that  the  Lord's 
Supper  was  a  savUuj  ordinance  began  to  develop  itself  to  any  con- 
siderable extent.  That  notion  was,  therefore,  sacramentally  consid- 
ered, abnormal  and  repugnant  to  the  plain  letter  of  the  eucharistic 
institution,  and,  of  course,  merits  no  further  attention  in  this  place. 


94  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

rich  and  varied  Divine  blessings,  and  hence  peculiarly 
eflBcient  as  a  means  of  grace,  I  may  observe  that,  in 
the  enlarged  sense  of  the  term,  every  rite  or  institu- 
tion claiming  a  scriptural  origin,  and  thus  having  the 
Divine  sanction,  is  suited  to  be  promotive  of  the  at- 
tainment of  Christian  graces  or  heavenly  gifts :  as  the 
use  of  prayer,  psalmody,  reading  the  Scriptures,  at- 
tendance on  homiletic  instruction,  etc.  Providential 
visitations  too,  manifested  in  strikingly  adverse  or  pros- 
perous events,  are  often  powerful  and  very  enduring 
means  of  grace,  constraining  the  impenitent  to  reflect 
and  pause  in  their  wild  and  headlong  career,  and  to 
ask.  What  must  we  do  to  be  saved  ?  or  filling  the  pious 
soul  with  unspeakable  joy  and  gratitude,  under  a  lively 
sense  of  the  great  and  unmerited  goodness  of  God.  For 
every  agency  of  the  kind  here  pointed  out,  or  implied, 
is  well  adapted  to  spiritual  instruction,  edification,  and 
improvement,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  facilitates  the 
acquirement  of  a  frame  of  mind,  properly  prepared  for 
the  benign  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  at  once 
enlightens,  renews,  and  sanctifies  the  heart,  and  thus 
effectually  restrains  and  preserves  it  from  sin  and  its 
allurements. 

Though  Christ  is  not  bodily  present  in  the  Lord's 
Supper,  as  I  have  shown  and  shall  still  continue  to 
show,  is  he  not  present  at  all,  thus  rendering  this 
ordinance  a  more  thorough  and  effectual  means  of 
grace,  conferring  blessings  far  greater  than  it  can 
otherwise  do  ?  Yes,  he  is  present  in  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per, though  in  a  pre-eminent  degree,  as  he  is  present 
in  all  heaven-appointed  means  of  grace,  and,  therefore, 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  95 

in  a  niannor  similar  to  liis  promised  presence  with  his 
followers,  or,  in  other  words,  with  his  Church.  (Mat- 
thew xxviii.  20.)  Wherever  his  word  is,  or  his 
Sacraments  are,  or  wherever  any  of  the  scripturally 
appointed  or  approved  ordinances  are  properly  ad- 
ministered, there  is  he,  manifesting"  himself  through 
the  inherent  moral  power  of  these  select  vehicles  of 
Divine  grace  and  approval.  Hence,  as  I  am  under 
necessity,  in  virtue  of  honest,  conscientious  convic- 
tions, peremptorily  to  reject  the  dogma  of  the  Real 
Presence,  I  feel  myself  likewise  constrained,  in  con- 
sequence of  its  decided  unscripturalness,  most  em- 
phatically to  protest  against  the  sacramental  doctr-ine  of 
a  mystic  or  supernatural  presence  considered  as  some- 
thing altogether  distinct  from  Christ's  presence  gener- 
ally, as  it  is  manifested  through  his  appointed  and, 
therefore,  sanctioned  and  sanctified  means  of  g-race.* 


*  The  doctrine  of  the  *'  Mjstic  Prescuce,"  as  set  forth  by  Dr.  Nevin, 
is  really,  as  this  learned  divine  teaches,  the  doctrine  of  Calvin;  but, 
notwithstanding  Calvin's  authority,  it  is  clearly  founded  upon  bare 
assumption,  as  it  is,  I  conceive,  entirely  unsupported  by  evangelical 
sanction.  Hence,  though  it  should  be  conceded  that  Calvin,  accord- 
ing to  the  distinguished  author  of  the  Mystic  Presence,  "  was  emphati- 
cally the  great  theologian  of  his  age,"  such  concession  must  not 
make  us  ignore  the  fact  that  one  is  our  master,  rabbi,  or  teacher,  even 
Christ,  our  only  and  divinely-appointed  creed-maker,  and  "that  all 
we  are  brethren,"  learning  only  of  Christ,  our  sufficient  and  only 
master.     (Matthew,  xxiii.  8.) 

I  will  only  add,  that  whatever  is  essential  to  our  salvation  dares 
not  be  obscured  by  mysticism,  otherwise  it  is  an  enigma,  not  a 
revelation,  and  therefore  incompetent  to  be  ranked  among  the  means 
"f  saving  grace,  or  the  redemptive  instrumentalities  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 


96  TUB  DOCTRINE   OF 


THE  USE  OF  BLOOD,  as  FOOD,  is  forbidden  in  SCRIPTURE, 
and  cannot,  therefore,  constitute  a  part  of  the  Real  Presence. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Its  Prohibition  in  the  Old  Testament. 

What  God  at  one  time  absolutely  prohibits  to  be 
dietetieallj  used,  he  cannot,  .under  any  circumstances, 
at  another,  enjoin  to  be  so  used  ;  and,  therefore,  the 
use  of  blood,  as  food,  being  thus  prohibited,  blood 
cannot  form  a  part  of  the  Real  Presence  in  the  Lord's 
Supper,  unless  it  can  be  shown  that  it  is  not  impossi- 
ble for  the  same  thing  to  be  or  not  to  be  ;  an  art  which, 
it  seems,  the  Jews  in  Isaiah's  time  could  boast  to  pos- 
sess, when  they  "  put  darkness  for  light,  and  light  for 
darkness."  I  shall  now  cite  authority  from  the  Old 
Testament  to  prove  that  blood  is  absolutely  prohibited 
as  an  article  of  food,  and  that  the  penalty  annexed  to 
the  violation  of  the  law  on  this  subject  is  death. 

The  first  instance  of  a  prohibitory  enactment  on  this 
subject  is  recorded  in  Genesis,  ix.  3-6,  and  is  con- 
tained in  these  words  :  "  Every  moving  thing  that 
liveth,  shall  be  meat  for  you ;  even  as  the  green  herb 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPF.U. 


97 


bave  I  g-ivcn  you  all  things.  But  flesh  with  the 
life  thereof,  which  is  the  blood  thereof,  shall  \'e  not 
eat.  And  surely  your  blood  of  your  lives  will  I  re- 
quire ;  at  the  hand  of  every  beast  will  I  require  it, 
and  at  the  hand  of  man  ;  at  the  hand  of  every  man's 
brother  will  I  require  the  life  of  man,"  etc. 

However  exegetes  may  differ  in  their  exposition  of 
this  remarkable  passage,  it  is  clear  that  blood,  used 
as  food,  either  alone  or  in  connection  with  flesh  eaten 
without  depletion,  is  peremptorily  prohibited,  while 
death  is  declared  to  be  the  inevitable  penalty  of  a 
violation  of  the  Divine  prohibition ;  and  that,  as  inci- 
dental to  a  barbarous  age,  cannibalism  was  one  of  the 
savage  forms  in  which  the  bloody  meals  of  those  days 
were  wont  to  be  indulged. 

We  next  turn  to  Leviticus,  iii.  17;  vii.  26,  27  ;  xvii. 
10,  U;  xix.  26.     The  words  contained  in  these  por- 
tions of  Scripture  reiterate   and  confirm  the  Divine 
statute  against  the  dietetic  use  of  blood.     They  are 
the  following :  -  It  shall  be  a  perpetual  statute  for  your 
generations  throughout  all  your  dwellings,  that  ye  eat 
neither  fat  nor  blood  ;  ye  shall  eat  no  manner  of  blood  : 
whatsoever  soul  it  is  that  eateth  any  manner  of  blood, 
even  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off  from'  his  people.     And 
whatsoever  man  there  is  of  the  house  of  Israel,  or  of 
the  strangers  that  sojourn  among  you,  that  eateth  any 
manner  of  blood,  I  will  even  set  my  face  against  that 
soul  that  eateth  blood,  and  will  cut  him  off  from  among 
his  people  ;  for  the  life  of  all  flesh  is  the  blood  thereof! 
Ye  shall  not  eat  anything  with  the  blood." 
These  are  plain  words,  plainly  spoken,  and  will,  no 
9 


98  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

doubt,  be  plainly  enough  executed.  Passing  on  to 
Deuteronomy,  xii.  16,  23-25;  xv.  23,  we  again  find 
the  statute  against  the  use  of  blood,  as  food,  renewed 
and  in  full  force,  and  notice  that  while  flesh  diet  was 
allowed  to  be  freely  indulged  in  by  the  Jews,  the  com- 
mand to  them  was :  "  Only  ye  shall  not  eat  the  blood, 
ye  shall  pour  it  upon  the  earth  as  water ;  only  be  sure 
that  thou  eat  not  the  blood,  for  the  blood  is  the  life, 
and  thou  mayest  not  eat  the  life  with  the  flesh.  Thou 
shalt  not  eat  it;  thou  shalt  pour  it  upon  the  earth  as 
water.  Thou  shalt  not  eat  it ;  that  it  may  go  well 
with  thee,  and  with  thy  children  after  thee,  when  thou 
shalt  do  that  which  is  right  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord," 
etc. 

In  this  place  the  fourth  verse  of  the  sixteenth  Psalm 
also  demands  a  brief  notice.  This  Psalm  was  regarded 
by  Luther,  as  well  as  by  many  other  theologians  of 
his  time,  as  Messianic,  an  honor  which  has  not  grown 
obsolete,  and  as  such  I  shall  consider  it  on  this  occa- 
sion. The  words  relevant  to  the  subject  are :  ''  Their 
drink-offerings  of  blood  will  I  not  offer."  These  drink- 
offerings  were  libations  made  in  honor  of  the  gods, 
and  consisted  of  blood,  or  of  blood  mixed  either  with 
wine  or  water.  A  part  of  the  offering  was  drunk,  and 
the  remainder  poured  out  at  the  foot  of  the  altar, 
sacred  to  the  object  of  this  mode  of  religious  worship. 
Christ  positively  declares  that  he  will  not  pollute  his 
lips  by  tasting  or  offering  such  bloody  libations :  he 
will  not  drink  it,  this  drink-offering  of  blood !  And 
can  it  be  possible  that  he  "  who  is  the  same  j^esterday, 
to-day,  and  forever,"  can  so  alter  his  mind  or  change 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  99 

his  conduct,  that  in  the  New  Testament,  and  in  an  in- 
stitution enipliatically  sacred  to  himself,  he  can,  with 
proper  Divine  consistency,  require  of  his  disciples  to 
drink  his  blood?     Never,  no,  never  I 


CHAPTER     II. 

Its  Prohibition  in  the  New  Testament. 

In  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
we  find  that  certain  Judaizing  teachers  propagated  the 
doctrine  among  the  Christians  of  the  city  of  Antioch, 
in  Syria,  that  Gentile  converts  to  Christianity  must 
submit  to  the  ancient  Hebrew  rite  of  circumcision, 
otherwise  their  conversion  could  not  be  regarded  as 
valid,  nor  their  pretensions  to  an  honorable  position 
among  the  Christians  as  at  all  pertinent  or  well- 
founded.  The  circumstance  caused  considerable  dis- 
turbance as  well  as  not  a  little  bickering  and  animosity 
among  the  zealous  and  alike  determined  adherents  of 
the  adverse  parties ;  and,  in  order  to  settle  the  dispute 
as  well  as  to  put  an  end  to  a  very  unamiable  state  of 
feeling  among  the  contendents,  it  was  at  length  re- 
solved that  the  case  should  be  carried  up  for  decision 
to  the  church  at  Jerusalem,  in  which  Peter — the  Ce- 
phas among  the  Apostles — played  a  conspicuous  part, 
and  James  the  Less,  brother  of  our  Lord,  occupied  the 
honorable  position  of  president.    Accordingly,  the  An- 


100  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

tiochian  Christians  made  choice  of  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
together  with  some  other  notable  persons,  to  go  up  to 
Jerusalem  and  lay  the  matter  before  the  Apostles  and 
Elders  of  that  place  for  final  adjudication.  They  ex- 
ecuted their  important  commission  with  no  less  fidelity 
than  alacrity  and  success.  Their  arrival  being  duly 
announced,  "  the  Apostles  and  Elders  came  together  to 
consider  the  matter."  A  vehement  dispute  arose  in 
this  nascent  ecclesiastical  council,  and  Peter  found  it 
necessary  to.  make  a  speech,  full  of  energy  and  per- 
tinent remark,  and  in  which  he  most  emphatically  took 
side  with  the  liberal  party,  whose  motto  was.  Progress, 
and  bore  down  with  power  and  emphasis  against  the 
unfortunate  opposition,  while  he  decidedly  repudiated 
the  narrow-mindedness  and  bigotry  of  an  obsolete  and 
efi'ete  formalism.  James  generously  and  wisely  sided 
with  his  bold  and  energetic  colleague,  and  the  result 
was,  that  a  decree  was  promptly  issued  which  restored 
peace  to  the  distracted  church  at  Antioch,  and  secured 
a  final  triumph  to  the  Pauline  standpoint  of  Chris- 
tianity. This  decree,  with  some  repetition,  incidental 
elucidations,  and  concise  introductory  remarks,  is  thus 
expressed  :  ''  Known  unto  God,"  writes  St.  James,  the 
venerable  apostle,  and  brother  of  Jesus,  "  are  all  his 
works  from  the  beginning  of  the  world.  Wherefore, 
my  sentence  is,  that  we  trouble  not  them,  which  from 
among  the  Gentiles  are  turned  to  God ;  but  that  we 
write  unto  them  that  they  abstain  from  pollutions  of 
idols,  and  from  fornication,  and  from  things  strangled, 
and  from  blood,"  etc.  "Then,"  thus  proceeds  the 
sacred  narrative,  "  pleased  it  the  Apostles  and  Elders, 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  iqI 

with  the  whole  Church,  to  send  chosen  men  of  their 
own  company  to  Antioch,  witli   Paul  and   Barnabas, 
namely,  Judas,  surnamed  Barsabas,  and  Silas,  chief 
men  among  the  brethren  :  and  they  wrote  letters  by 
them  after  this  manner.    The   Apostles,  Elders,   and 
Brethren  send  greeting  unto  the  brethren  which  are  of 
the  Gentiles  in  Antioch,  and  Syria,  and  Cilicia.     For- 
asmuch as   we  have  heard  that  certain  which   went 
out    from    us    have    troubled    you    with    words    sub- 
verting your  souls,  saying.  Ye  must  be  circumcised, 
and  keep  the   law,  to   whom  we  gave  no  such  com- 
mandment: it  seemed  good  unto  us,  being  assembled 
with  one  accord,  to  send  chosen  men  unto  you,  with 
our   beloved   Barnabas    and   Paul;     men   that   have 
hazarded  their  lives  for  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.    We  have  sent,  therefore,  Judas  and  Silas,  who 
shall  also  tell  you  the  same  things  by  mouth.     For  it 
seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  us,  to  lay  upon 
you  no  greater  burden   than   these  necessary  things ; 
That  ye  abstain  from  meats  oflfered  to  idols,  and  from 
blood,  and  from  things  strangled,  and  from  fornication; 
from  which  if  ye  keep  yourselves,  ye  shall  do  well. 
Fare  ye  well." 

What  is  to  be  especially  noticed  here  is,  that  the 
authors  of  this  primordial  decree  in  the  Christian 
Church,  consisting  of  "the  Apostles,  Elders,  and  the 
Brethren"  of  the  Christian  society  at  Jerusalem,  did 
not  act  altogether  in  self-reliance,  but  sought  and  found 
succor  through  the  gracious  and  opportune  instru- 
mentality of  the  Holy  Ghost;  for  thus  it  is  asserted 
in  the  decree,   "  It  seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost, 

y* 


102  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

and  to  us."  Thus  Peter,  occupying  a  position  in  the 
foremost  rank  among  the  apostles ;  James  the  Less, 
brother  of  our  Lord;  the  Christian  elders  and  brethren 
of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem  ;  and  the  Holy  Ghost  from 
heaven,  unite  with  one  accord  in  the  prohibition  of  the 
use  of  blood  as  food,  either  alone,  or  still  retained  in 
the  defunct  bodies  of  the  strangled  animals,  employed 
as  food.*  Moreover,  God,  as  Elohim  or  Jehovah,  pro- 
hibits the  use  of  blood  as  an  article  of  diet  in  Genesis, 
Leviticus,  and  Deuteronomy;  as  Christ,  in  the  six- 
teenth Psalm, — by  his  example ;  and  as  the  Holy 
Ghost,  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles ;  and  yet,  after  all 
this  overwhelming  mass  of  testimony,  of  heaven  and 
earth  combined,  on  the  subject,  we  are  told  that  Christ 
requires  us  to  recognize  and  to  drink  his  blood  in  the 
Lord's  Supper  !     Alas,  what  strange  hallucination  I 

*  When  the  Antiochian  Christians  are  required  to  abstain  from 
things  strangled,  "We  are  to  understand,"  writes  Dr.  Clarke,  "the 
flesh  of  those  animals  which  were  strangled  for  the  purpose  of  kcejy- 
ing  the  blood  in  the  body,  as  such  animals  were  esteemed  a  great  deli- 
cacy." 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 


103 


THE  APOSTOLIC  DECREE,  ACTS,  XV.  1-29,  PROHIBITING 
THE  USE  OF  BLOOD,  AS  AN  ARTICLE  OF  FOOD  IS 
STILL  IX  FORCE. 


It  has  been  argued,  both  ia  ancient  and  more  recent 
times,  that  the  apostolic  decree,  prohibiting  the  use  of 
blood  as  an  article  of  food,  was  designed  to  be  only  of 
temporary  obligation ;  that  it  was  simply  intended  to 
arrest  certain  evils  prevalent  in  a  part  of  the  Church 
at  the  time  of  its  promulgation ;  and  that,  of  course, 
it  ceased  to  have  validity  as  soon  as  the  cause  which 
gave  rise  to  it  ceased.  The  subject  is  one  of  no  ordinary 
interest,  and  I  am  happy  to  be  able  to  avail  myself  of 
a  part  of  a  most  thorough  and  excellent  disquisition, 
the  object  of  which  is  its  complete  illustration,  by  Dr. 
Delaney,  in  a  work  entitled  "Revelation  examined 
with  Candor."*  His  reasoning  is  so  cogent,  his  style 
so  pithy  and  pointed,  and  his  polemics  so  calm  and 
courteous,  that,  w^th  the  truth  all  on  his  side,  he  must 
necessarily  obtain  an  easy  and  complete  triumph. 

"But  to  proceed,"  writes  the  Doctor,  "  if  this  decree 
met  only  a  temporary  necessity,  how  long  did  this  ne- 
cessity last?"     To  this  Dr.  Hammond  answers,  that 

*  See  Dr.  Clarke  on  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 


104  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

it  lasted  till  the  Jews  and  Gentiles  were  formed  into 
one  communion.  And  St.  Augustine  says  that  it  lasted 
till  the  time  that  no  carnal  Israelite  appeared  in  the 
church  of  the  Gentiles ;  and  again,  that  it  lasted  till 
the  temple  and  the  Jewish  polity  were  destroyed.  To 
all  this,  I  answer,  that  if  the  two  first  opinions  are  ad- 
mitted, then  the  necessity  of  observing  the  apostolic 
decree  continues  to  this  day :  first,  because  the  Jews 
and  Gentiles  are  indisputably  not  yet  fully  formed  into 
one  communion ;  and  secondly,  because  there  was 
never  any  time  wherein  there  was  not  some  carnal 
Israelite  in  the  church;  and  I  think  it  must  be  notori- 
ous to  many  of  my  readers,  that  there  are  some  such 
even  in  this  part  of  the  Christian  Church,  at  this  day: 
and  so  doubtless  in  every  Christian  Church  over  the 
face  of  the  whole  earth ;  and  therefore  both  these 
opinions  are  wild  and  unsupported. 

As  to  the  third  opinion,  namely,  that  the  necessity 
of  observing  this  decree  lasted  only  till  the  destruction 
of  the  Jewish  temple  and  polity,  I  answer,  that  what- 
ever may  be  thought  of  the  necessity  of  this  decree,  it 
is  evident  that  the  wisdom  of  it,  and  the  advantage  of 
that  abstinence  which  was  due  to  it,  extended  much 
further.  Since,  without  this,  that  calumny,  imputed 
to  Christians,  of  killing  tnfants  in  their  assemblies,  and 
drinking  their  blood,  could  never  be  so  easily  and 
so  effectually  confuted ;  for  nothing  could  do  this  so 
thoroughly,  as  demonstrating  that  it  was  a  funda- 
mental principle  with  Christians  to  touch  no  blood  of 
any  kind  ;  and  what  could  demonstrate  this  so  effect- 
ually as  dying  in  attestation  to  the  truth  of  it,  as  it  is 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  105 

notorious,  both  from    the  apologists  and  the  ecclesi- 
astical historians,  that  many  Christian  martyrs  did? 

But  it  is  further  urged  that  this  apostolic  decree  was 
only  given  to  the  Jewish  proselytes,  and,  consequently, 
that  the  necessity  of  abstaining  from  blood  and  things 
strangled  related  to  them  only  ;  this,  they  tell  us,  ap- 
pears, "  in  that  the  Apostle,  when  he  preached  in  any 
city,  did  it  as  yet  in  the  synagogues  of  the  Jews, 
whither  the  Gentiles  could  not  come,  unless  they  w^ere 
proselytes  of  the  gate."  Now  this  opinion,  I  think, 
will  be  sufficiently  confuted  by  demonstrating  these  two 
things  :  first,  that  before  the  passage  of  this  decree  St. 
Paul  preached  Christianity  to  the  whole  body  of  the 
Gentiles,  at  Antiocb  ;  and  secondly,  that  this  decree 
is  directed  to  the  Gentiles  at  large,  and  not  to  the 
Jewish  proselytes.  This  transaction  at  Antiocb — the 
preaching  of  Christianity  by  St.  Paul  to  the  w^hole 
body  of  the  Gentiles — happened  seven  years  before  the 
decree  against  blood  and  things  strangled  was  passed 
by  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem.  Can  any  man  in  his 
senses  doubt,  after  this,  whether  the  Apostles  preached 
to  the  Gentiles  before  the  passing  of  that  decree  ;  when 
it  appears,  from  the  words  now  recited,  that  the  Apos- 
tle s  not  only  preached  to  the  Gentiles,  but  preached  to 
them  in  contradistinction  to  the  Jews?  And  does  any 
man  know  the  Jews  so  little  as  to  imagine  that  when 
the  Apostles  turned  to  the  Gentiles,  from  them,  the 
Jews  would  after  this  suffer  those  Apostles  to  preach 
to  the  Gentiles  in  their  synagogues  ?  Besides,  the 
text  says,  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  published 
throughout  all  the  region,  Acts,  xv.  23  ;  consequently 


106  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

the  Apostles  were  so  far  from  confining  themselves  to 
the  Jewish  synagogue  that  they  were  not  confined 
even  to  the  extent  of  that  ample  city,  Antioch,  but 
preached  throughout  the  whole  country.  This  opinion, 
then,  that  the  Apostles  preached  only  to  the  Jews 
and  proselytes  before  the  passing  of  the  decree  against 
blood  at  Jerusalem,  is  demonstrably  false  ;  and  if  they 
preached  to  the  Gentiles  at  large,  to  whom  else  can 
that  decree  be  directed  ?  It  is  directed  to  the  Gentile 
converts  at  large;  and  who  can  we  imagine  those 
converts  were  but  those  to  whom  Christianity  was 
preached,  that  is,  the  Gentiles  at  large  ?* 

But  this  is  yet  further  demonstrated  from  St.  James's 
sentence,  in  this  fifteenth  chapter  of  Acts,  upon  which 
the  apostolic  decree  is  founded.  His  words  are  these  ; 
"  Wherefore  my  sentence  is,  that  we  trouble  not 
them,  which  from  among  the  Gentiles  are  turned  to 
God  :  but  that  we  write  unto  them,  that  they  abstain 
from  pollutions  of  idols,  and  from  fornication,  and 
from  things  strangled,  and  from  blood.  For  Moses  of 
old  time  hath  in  every  city  them  that  preach  him,  being 
read  in  the  synagogues  every  Sabbath  day."  Acts, 
XV.  21.  What  then?  What  if  Moses  had  those  that 
preached  him  in  the  synagogues  every  Sabbath  ?  Why 
then  there  was  no  necessity  of  writing  upon  these 
points  to  any  of  those  who  were  admitted  into  the 
synagogues  ;  because  they  knew,  from  the  writings  of 


*  The  Jews,  being  already  in  possession  of  astringent  code  of  laws 
interdicting  the  dietetic  use  of  blood,  needed  no  new  enactment  on 
the  subject,  Acts,  xv.  21. — Gr. 


TTIF.   LORD'S  SUPPER.  107 

Moses,  that  all  those  things  were,  from  the  fouiidation 
of  the  world,  unlawful  to  the  whole  race  of  Adam: 
Genesis,  ix.  3-G. 

The  substance  of  the  Apostle  James's  sentence  is, 
That  we  write  to  the  Gentile  converts  upon  these 
points,  Acts,  XV.  20;  for  Moses  hath  those  of  old  time  in 
every  city,  that  preach  him, — that  is,  there  is  no  neces- 
sity of  writing  to  any  Jewish  convert,  or  to  any  prose- 
lyte convert  to  Christianity,  to  abstain  from  those 
things  ;  because  all  that  are  admitted  into  the  syna- 
gogues— as  the  proselytes  are — know  all  these  things 
sufficiently  already  ;  and  accordingly,  upon  this  sentence 
of  St.  James,  the  decree  was  founded  and  directed, 
Acts,  XV.  28,  29  :  doubtless,  from  the  nature  of  the 
thing,  directed  to  those  whom  it  was  fitting  and  neces- 
sary to  inform  upon  these  points, — that  is,  those  who 
were  unacquainted  with  the  writings  of  Moses  ;  for  the 
decree,  as  far  as  it  contained  a  direction  to  certain 
duties,  could  give  no  information  to  any  others. 

An  objection  is  also  raised  against  this  doctrine  from 
the  conclusion  of  the  decree.  Ye  do  well ;  insinuating 
that  though  they  should  do  well  to  observe  it,  yet  they 
did  no  ill  in  not  observing  it.  I  answer,  that  doing 
well,  in  the  style  of  Scripture,  as  well  as  common 
speech,  is  acting  agreeably  to  our  duty  ;  and  doing 
well  in  necessary  things  must  certainly  be  acting  agree- 
ably to  necessary  duty  ;  and  certainly  the  same  duty 
cannot  be  at  the  same  time  necessary  and  indiffer- 
ent. The  objection  is  farther  added,  that  if  the  points 
contained  in  this  decree  are  not  parts  of  the  Mosaic 
law,  the  decree  has  no  relation  to  the  question  in  debate  ; 


108  THE   DOCTRINE   OF 

for  the  debate  was,  whether  the  Gentile  converts  to 
Christianity  should  be  obliged  to  observe  the  law  of 
Moses  ?  Mv  reply  is,  that  the  decree  hath  the  clearest 
relation  to  the  question  ;  inasmuch  as  it  is  a  decision 
that  the  Gentile  converts  were  not  obliged  to  observe 
the  law  of  Moses.  It  hath,  at  the  same  time,  a  plain 
relation  to  the  point  in  question;  for  what  could  be 
more  proper  than  to  take  occasion  to  let  the  Gentiles 
know  that  they  were  obliged  to  the  observance  of  such 
duties  as  were  obligatory  antecedently  to  the  law  of 
Moses,  Genesis,  ix.  3-6,  though  they  were  exempted 
from  that  law  ? 

Beside  this,  it  is  urged  that  the  decree  could  only 
oblige  those  to  whom  it  was  directed, — that  is,  the  Gen- 
tiles of  Antioclr,  and  Syria,  and  Cilicia.  As  if  the 
decree,  and  the  reason  of  it,  did  not  equally  extend  to 
all  Gentile  converts  throughout  the  whole  world.  And 
as  if  this  doctrine  was  only  taught  and  received  in 
those  particular  regions  ;  when  it  is  evident,  beyond  a 
possibility  of  being  denied  or  doubted,  that  all  Chris- 
tians, in  every  region  of  the  earth,  were  taught,  and 
actually  embraced,  the  same  doctrine,  at  least,  for  the 
first  three  hundred  years  after  Christ. 

Finally,  it  is  objected  that  this  dispute  could  not 
have  happened  otherwise,  except  between  Gentile  and 
Judaizing  converts  ;  and  consequently,  the  decision  of 
it  must  have  respect  to  the  conduct,  which  it  was  then 
necessary  the  Gentiles  should  hold,  with  regard  to  the 
Jews,  who  could  not  converse  with  them  upon  the  basis 
of  a  friendly  communication  ;  could  not  sit  at  meat, 
etc.,  unless   the   Gentiles  abstained  from  blood,  etc. ; 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 


109 


consequently  that  this  necessity  has  now  ceased.  My 
answer  to  this,  admitting  the  premises,  is,  I  must  own 
I  cannot  see  how  this  conclusion  follows  from  them,  as 
long  as  there  are  Jews  and  Mohammedans  in  the  world 
to  be  converted  to  the  Christian  religion.* 


*  From  Bruce's  Travels,  according  to  Burdcr's  "  Oriental  Cu- 
toms,"  It  appears  that  when  he  visited  Abyssinia,  the  natives  prac- 
ticed eating  blood,  not  only  of  slaughtered  animals,  but  of  such  as 
were  still  alive,  exsecting  or  cutting  out  slices  of  meat  from  the 
rump  of  a  cow,  "thicker  and  longer  than  our  ordinary  beef-steaks." 

Antes,  m  his  "Observations  on  the  Manners  and  Customs  of  the 
iigyptians,"  thus  confirms  the  foregoing  statement :  "  I  have  heard 
not  only  Bruce's  servant,  but  many  eye-witnesses,  often  speak  of  the 
Abyssinians  eating  raw  flesh." 

How  prone  the  Israelites  were  to  the  crime  of  eating  blood,  not- 
withstanding the  severe  penalties,  which  were  denounced  against  the 
practice,  is  shown  by  reference  to  1  Samuel,  xiv.  32,33. 


10 


110  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 


SEOTIOIsr    ^I. 

THE  DISCOURSE  OF  THE  SAVIOUR,  IN  JOHN,  VI  32- 
&?,,  IMPARTIALLY  EXAMINED,  AND  ILLUSTRATED 
WITH  DIRECT  REFERENCE ^  TO  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 
THE  REAL  PRESENCE  IN  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 


The  memorable  incident  which,  it  seems,  gave  rise 
to  the  discourse  of  our  Lord,  recorded  in  John,  vi.  32- 
63,  may  be  recognized  in  the  thirtieth  and  thirty-first 
verses  of  that  important  chapter.  The  Jews  asked 
the  Divine  teacher  to  give  them  a  sign  calculated  to 
accredit  the  authenticity  of  his  mission,  as  Moses  did  to 
their  ancestors,  when  he  gave  them  "bread — manna — 
from  heaven."  Our  Lord  denied  that  that  manna  was 
heaven-bread,  in  the  higher  and  proper  sense  of  the 
term,  and  assured  his  sign-seeking  and  hyper-skeptic 
countrymen  that  he  alone  had  the  real,  life-giving  and 
saving  heaven-bread,  the  spiritual  manna,  descending 
from  the  empyrean  abode  of  bliss,  far  transcending,  in 
preciousness  and  enduring  excellence,  all  Arabia's 
manna,  though  eminently  a  God-given  gift. 

The  Capernaitic  discourse,  so  called  from  the  fact 
that  it  was  delivered  at  Capernaum,  a  principal  city  of 
Galilee,  is  remarkable  for  its  eminently  figurative  lan- 
guage, owing  to  wiiich,  it  has  often  proved  the  puzzle 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  \\\ 

and  the  discomfiture  of  the  excgete.  Yet  the  difficulty, 
properly  to  interpret  it,  is  doubtless  more  to  be  ascribed 
to  a  want  of  just  appreciation  of  the  genius  of  Orien- 
tal language,  which  is  emphatically  prolific  and,  oc- 
casionally, even  exuberant,  in  the  use  of  tropes,  as 
has  been  already  shown,  and  as  is  here  at  once,  so 
forcibly  and  in  so  remarkable  a  degree,  exemplified 
in  the  rhetoric  composition  before  us.  But,  it  may 
be  said,  if  the  Orientals  are  so  familiar  with  such 
extraordinary  phraseology  as  that  which  the  Saviour 
used  in  his  Capernaitic  discourse,  how  is  it  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  sacred  writer,  neither  his  Jewish  nor 
his  Christian  hearers  understood  the  true  meaning  and 
drift  of  his  words,  though  they  were  both  natives  of 
the  East;  and  besides,  his  intimate  disciples — espe- 
cially the  Apostles  —  had  already  had  considerable 
opportunity  to  familiarize  themselves  with  his  some- 
what frequent  and  excessive  indulgence  in  the  employ- 
ment of  tropes,  which  might  at  first,  in  some  measure, 
bewilder  or  startle  an  Occidental  audience  ?  If,  in- 
stead of  an  Apostle,  a  secular  historian  should  record 
the  fact  that  the  Jews,  instead  of  instantly  compre- 
hending the  aim  and  force  of  the  flowery  expressions 
of  our  Lord,  used  on  this  occasion,  had,  on  the  con- 
trary, manifested  profound  perplexity,  exclaiming, 
"  How  can  this  man  give  us  his  flesh  to  eat  ?" — or, 
that  many  of  the  Saviour's  disciples,  of  whom  it  seems 
better  things  might  have  been  expected,  instead  of 
readily  affiliating  in  sentiment  with  the  Oriental  modus 
loquendi  of  their  Divine  and  beloved  rabbi,  appear  to 
have  been  fully  as  obtuse,  in  respect  to  an  intelligent 


112  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

and  profitable  appreciation  of  the  important  truths  that 
were  proclaimed  to  them,  as  the  carnal  and  indocile 
Jews,  and  to  have  betrayed  an  ignorance  and  inapti- 
tude of  learning  not  at  all  inferior  to  their  unregener- 
ate  countrymen,  exclaiming,  "  This  is  a  hard  saying  ; 
who  can  hear  it  ?" — I  should  feel  hesitancy  to  credit 
the  statement,  so  implausible  does  it  seem,  at  first 
blush,  to  a  person  living  in  the  light  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  yet  who  humbly  presumes  to  include  himself 
among  an  audience  to  whom  the  Capernaitic  discourse 
is  ever  addressed,  and  to  whom  it  must  always  be 
a  topic  of  the  highest  interest  as  well  as  priceless 
value. 

The  remarkable  modes  of  expression  in  this  striking 
discourse,  which  merit  a  brief  yet  careful  attention  in 
this  connection,  are,  that  Christ  is  "  the  bread  of  God"  ; 
that  he  is  "  the  bread  of  life" ;  that  "  he  that  cometh 
to  him  shall  never  hunger,  and  he  that  believeth  in 
him  shall  never  thirst."  Moreover,  that  he  is  "the 
living  bread" ;  that  "  whoever  eats  this  bread — the 
spiritual  manna — shall  live  forever"  ;  that  the  bread 
which  he  gives  his  followers  is  his  flesh,  which  he 
gives  "  for  the  life  of  the  world";  that  unless  we  "eat 
his  flesh  and  drink  his  blood" — metonymic  expressions, 
for  subsisting  psychologically  on  the  fruits  of  his 
redemption — "  we  have  no  life  in  us,"  but  that,  on  the 
contrary,  "eternal  life  "  will  be  our  reward  ;  that  his 
flesh  and  blood  are  meat  and  drink  indeed;  that, 
finally,  "  if  we  eat  his  flesh  and  drink  his  blood,  we 
dwell  in  him  and  he  in  us":  are  psychologically  one  in 
sentiment  and  in  aspiration. 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  113 

That  these  words  are  figurative  and  have  a  spiritual 
import,  though  thej  do  not  imply  supernatural  and 
incomprehensible  mysteries,  as  Luther  and  others 
teach,  must,  I  think,  be  evident  to  most  persons  of  re- 
flecting and  intelligent  minds.  Does  not  our  Saviour 
declare  in  the  plainest  and  most  emphatic  language, 
that  the  bread  which  he  gives  us  is  his  flesh, — 
that  is,  the  fruit  of  the  sacrifice  of  himself  for  the  life 
of  the  world  ?  In  the  death  of  the  cross,  he  gave  his 
Jlesh  for  us,  and  in  thus  giving  it, — that  is,  in  thus  giv- 
ing himself, — his  followers  cannot,  of  course,  eat  and 
drink  his  flesh  and  blood  literally,  but  they  can  and 
shall  eat  and  drink  them  spiritually,  through  means  of 
faith  and  holy  living, — that  is,  appropriate  mentally  and 
morally,  or,  in  other  words,  psychologically,  the  bless- 
ings which  he  procured  for  us,  by  becoming  a  sin- 
offering  in  our  behalf  on  Golgotha.  I  may  add,  that 
the  sense  of  these  expressions  is  strikingly  analogous 
to  that  of  the  words  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  This  is  my 
body,  which  is  given  for  you ;  this  is  my  blood,  which 
is  shed  for  you,  etc.,  the  meaning  of  which  has  been 
sufficiently  demonstrated  to  be  figurative.  The  words 
in  this  discourse  which  are  regarded  by  literal  inter- 
preters as  especially  favoring  the  idea  of  oral  mandu- 
cation — receiving  and  masticating  in  the  mouth  the 
carnal  body  of  Christ, — a  mode  of  eating  the  Saviour's 
body  which,  it  is  boldly  asserted,  is  incomprehensible 
and  supernatural — are  the  following :  "As  the  living 
Father  hath  sent  me,  and  I  live  by  the  Father ;  so  he 
that  eateth  me,  even  he  shall  live  by  me."  The  plain, 
unsophisticated  sense  of  which  is,  that  as  Christ,  as 
10* 


114  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

Saviour,  lived  through  means  of  the  Father's  grace,  so 
we  should  live  through  his  grace,  which,  by  the  use 
of  a  trope,  he  calls  eating  him.  In  other  words,  we 
shall  live  by  him — by  his  grace  or  redeeming  gifts, 
procured  for  us  in  his  death — after  the  manner  in  which 
he  lived  by  the  Father,  in  the  possession  of  "the 
Spirit  without  measure."  We  can  no  more  literally 
eat  Christ  than  Christ  could  literally  eat  the  Father  ; 
for  the  word  so,  in  the  text,  implies  parity  in  the  mode 
of  living  by  the  Father  and  by  the  Son,  and  therefore, 
as  this  mode  of  living  is  only  practicable  spiritually  in 
the  one  case,  it  must  needs  be  only  practicable  spir- 
itually in  the  other.  This  view  of  the  subject,  I  am 
satisfied,  will  finally  triumph  over  all  opposition,  and 
become  the  universal  sentiment  of  the  Church, 

Again,  Christ  says,  if  we  eat  his  flesh  and  drink  his 
blood  "  we  shall  dwell  in  him  and  he  in  us."  The  ad- 
vocates of  a  Real  Presence  may  well  pause  and  reflect, 
in  the  commanding  presence  of  these  words ;  for  surely 
not  an  incomprehensible  supernatural  eating  and  drink- 
ing of  a  co7yo7^eal  hypostasis  will  here  satisfy  sound 
exegesis,  but  a  spiritual  apprehension  only  of  the  text 
can  do  it  justice.  I  will  only  observe,  that  we  recip- 
rocally dwell  in  Christ  and  Christ  in  us,  if  ''the  same 
mind  is  in  us  that  was  in  him" :  then  we  are  his  spir- 
itual offspring,  in  the  same  sense  in  which  Paul  calls 
Timothy  "my  own  son  in  the  faith.^^  Moreover, 
Christ  assures  his  disciples,  that  "they  should  see  him 
ascend  up  where  he  was  before."  Of  course,  after  as- 
cension, his  body  would  be  no  longer  present  or  access- 
ible, and  an  oral  manducation  of  it  would  be  thence- 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  II5 

forth  plainly  impossible.  Maybe,  after  that  astounding 
event,  their  eyes  were  somewhat  opened  !  Finally,  the 
Saviour  clearly  settles  this  question  himself,  in  a  man- 
ner that  admits  of  neither  doubt  nor  gainsaying,  in 
these  emphatic  and  decisive  words :  "It  is  the  spirit 
that  quickeneth  ;  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing  :  the  words 
that  I  speak  unto  you," — in  this  Capernaitic  discourse, 
— "they  are  spirit,  and  they  are  life."* 

*  It  may  not  be  either  without  interest  or  profit  to  hear  Zwinglius' 
opinion  on  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  according  to  John,  illus- 
trating, at  the  same  time,  the  nature  and  design  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 
"Among  his  con^dential  correspondents,"  writes  Professor  Mayer,  in 
his  "  History  of  the  German  Reformed  Church,"  "  was  Mattheus  Alber, 
pastor  of  a  church  in  Reutlingen.  To  this  man  he  imparted  his  opinion 
on  the  words  of  the  institution  in  the  Lord's  Supj)cr,  Take,  eat ;  this  is 
my  body,  etc.,  and  the  argument,  at  length,  by  which  he  maintained  it. 
It  was  based  chiefly  upon  the  discourse  of  Christ,  in  the  sixth  chap- 
ter of  John,  where  the  Lord  speaks  of  eating  his  flesh  and  drinking 
his  blood.  He  granted  that  Christ  had  no  reference  in  that  place  to 
the  eucharistic  supper,  but  observed  that  he  there  spoke  of  an  eating 
of  his  flesh  and  a  drinking  of  his  blood,  by  which  nothing  of  a  material 
nature  was  intended.  The  Lord  calls  himself  the  bread  of  life,  and 
declares  that  whoever  eats  of  this  bread  shall  never  die;  and  he 
presently  explains  in  what  sense  it  is  that  he  calls  himself  a  living 
food,  and  in  what  sense  this  living  food  may  be  eaten  :  '  The  bread 
which  I  will  give  is  my  flesh,  which  I  will  give  for  the  life  of  the 
world;'  and,  'Whosoever  believeth  in  me  hath  eternal  life.'  His 
flesh  is,  therefore,  become  the  food  of  the  soul  so  far  as  it  is  delivered 
to  death  for  the  world's  salvation  ;  and  to  eat  his  flesh,  and  to  drink 
his  blood,  is  to  believe  in  him;  to  believe  that  he  was  ofl'ered  to  God 
as  an  expiatory  sacrifice  for  our  sins,  in  his  flesh, — that  is,  in  his 
human  nature.  Hence  when  the  Jews  took  offence  at  his  words,  be- 
cause he  insisted  on  the  necessity  of  eating  his  flesh,  and  drinking 
his  blood,  if  they  would  have  life,  he  remarked,  in  explanation  of  his 
meaning,  'It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth:  the  flesh  profiteth  no- 
thing.'    'What,'  says  Zwinglius  here,  'can  be  more  forcible   than 


llg  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

In  John,  iv.  10,  14,  23,  24,  we  find  a  close  analogy, 
both  in  expression  and  doctrine,  to  the  language  and 
tenets  set  forth  in  the  Capernaitic  discourse.  Had  the 
Samaritan  woman  asked  it  of  Christ,  he  says,  "He 
would  have  given  her  living  water" ;  adding,  that  "who- 
ever drank  of  the  water  that  he  would  give  him  should 
never  thirst,"  etc.  What  else  can  these  propositions 
denote  but  Christ-indoctrination  and  the  abundant  so- 
terial  blessings  and  graces,  incident  to  the  vicarious 
death  of  Christ  ?  The  phrase,  "  living  water,"  cannot, 
of  course,  be  understood  literally,  as  water  is  not  alive, 
being  a  fluid  destitute  of  organic  structure,  and  it  must, 
therefore,  imply  the  means  of  salvation,  with  which 
the  Redeemer  so  richly  and  beneficently  provides  his 
followers.  In  short,  the  expressive  epithets  which  the 
Saviour  applies  to  the  proffered  water  of  salvalion,  at 
the  patriarchal  well,  must  be  interpreted  spiritually, 
and  in  a  manner  readily  comprehensible  by  the  human 
mind  ;  for  the  Christian  religion,  in  its  God-given  pu- 
rity, is  eminently  a  spiritual  mode  of  worship,  and  as 
such  only  approved  and  blessed  by  God  :  it  is  the 
highest  and  best  form  of  worship  to  which,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  the  human  race  has  yet  attained ; 
it  is,  in  fact,  the  sublime,  soul-ennobling  worship  of 
God,  "in  spirit  and  in  truth,"  observed  and  fully  re- 
alized only  by  "the  true  worshipers";  a  worship  em- 

these  words  to  overthrow  all  the  figments  of  an  essential  bodily  flesh 
of  Christ  in  the  Sacrament?  If  the  eating  of  his  flesh  in  this  sense 
would  be  useless,  could  Christ  have  designed  to  give  us  his  flesh  to 
eat  in  the  Sacrament?  Would  he  give  what  he  declares  to  be  use- 
less?'" 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  IH 

phaticallv  sought  and  inculcated  by  God,  for  "God 
is  a  spirit,  and  they  that  worship  him  must  worship 
him  in  spirit  and  in  truth" :  not  in  an  insensate  routine 
of  dead  formalism,  or  hypocritical  disp^uise  and  delu- 
sive parade.  The  water  which  our  Lord  gives  the 
believer  has  never  been  seen  or  tasted  as  water,  in  the 
common  acceptation  of  the  term  ;  but  as  a  spiritual 
blessing,  a  heavenly  gift,  conferring  everlasting  life,  it 
has  and  ever  is. 

To  the  foregoing  investigation,  I  add  the  interesting 
passage  of  Scripture  found  in  Proverbs,  ix.  1-5.  Here 
Wisdom  is  personified,  and  she  has  a  "  house"  with 
"  seven  pillars  ";  has  "  killed  her  beasts" ;  "  mingled" — 
spiced  "  her  wine" :  to  heighten  its  color  and  improve  its 
flavor;  and  "  furnished  her  table."  The  feast  being  thus 
prepared.  Wisdom's  messengers  are  sent  forth  to  invite 
the  guests ;  ay,  "  she  hath  sent  forth  her  maidens :  she 
crieth  upon  the  highest  places,"  in  the  more  prominent 
localities,  "  of  the  city.  Whoso  is  simple," — lacks  under- 
standing and  the  principles  of  a  religious  and  virtuous 
life, — "let  him  turn  in  hither;  come,  eat  of  my  bread, 
and  drink  of  the  wine  which  I  have  mingled."  Here  the 
sacred  w^riter,  famous  in  gnomic  lore,  represents  the 
means  through  which  we  attain  to  Divine  knowledge 
and  a  holy  life  as  wine,  bread,  and  the  flesh  of  beasts, 
— as  a  soul-feast;  and  the  tropical  language  which  he 
employs  is  of  the  same  bold  and  striking  kind  as  that 
which  we  have  met  in  diff'erent  parts  of  the  Gospel 
according  to  John,  and  subjected  to  a  concise  though 
somewhat  elaborate  scrutiny.  There  is  wine,  here 
blood ;  there  the  flesh  of  slaughtered  beasts,  here  the 


118  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

flesh  of  the  Son  of  man ;  there  bread,  here  water  and 
bread.  Such  lively  and  picturesque  phraseology  is  ex- 
tremely beautiful.  How  grand,  yet  how  simple  !  how 
flowery  and  animated,  yet  how  earnest  and  solemn,  are 
the  style  and  structure  of  such  sublime  and  instructive 
modes  of  teaching  I 

It  was  especially  the  language  in  the  Capernaitic 
discourse  that  attracted  the  notice  and  claimed  the  at- 
tention of  the  Reformers,  in  reference  to  the  words  in 
the  Lord's  Supper  supposed  to  be  indicative  of  a  Real 
Presence.  According  to  the  Symbolical  Books  (see 
Ludwig's  fifth  edition  of  the  Book  of  Concord,  page 
493  and  page  591),*  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord,  in 
the  Lord's  Supper,  are  not  partaken  of  in  a  crass,  Ca- 
pernaitic, but  in  a  supernatural  and  celestial  manner, 
— not  in  the  least  intelligible  to  anybody;  yet,  notwith- 
standing this,  in  their  capacity  of  the  real  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  given  and  shed  for  us,  for  the  remis- 
sion of  sins.  What  astounding  doctrine  !  The  identi- 
cal body  and  blood  of  Christ,  as  they  existed  at  the 
crucifixion,  are  orally  eaten  and  drunk,  and  thus  die- 
tetically  consumed  like  common  aliment,  etc. ;  and  yet 
Luther  and  the  Concordists  reject  a  Capernaitic  eat- 
ing and  drinking  of  Christ's  flesh  and  blood,  believed 
by  the  Jews  and  many  of  the  Christian  disciples,  who 
composed  the  audience  of  our-  Lord's  Capernaitic  dis- 
course, to   be   absolutely  inculcated  by  the  Saviour. 


*  This  is  the  edition  of  the  Book  of  Concord,  always  referred  to, 
in  this  Work,  unless  otherwise  stated. 


THE  LORD'S  SUP  PER.  119 

"What  strange  contradiction  1  Nay,  indeed,  I  may  say, 
what  crude  and  groveling  notions  I 

But  let  us  hear  Luther,  as  he  writes  on  this  subject, 
in  the  Larger  Catechism  :  "  In  consequence  of  the 
declaration  of  our  Lord,  This — the  bread — is  my  body  ; 
this — the  wine — is  my  blood,  etc.,  you  may  rest  con- 
tent, and  bid  defiance  to  a  hundred  thousand  devils, 
together  with  all  the  accompanying  crew  of  fanatics, 
when  they  interpose  their  objection  and  say,  'How 
can  bread  and  wine  be  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ?' 
etc.  In  spite  of  such  cavil  and  opposition, — which  are 
not  of  the  slightest  weight,  compared  with  Divine 
wisdom, —  Christ's  assurance  is  true  and  must  endure: 
Take,  eat :  this  is  my  body ;  drink  ye  all  of  this :  this 
cup  is  the  new  testament  in — of  in  the  original — my 
blood,"  etc.  This  view  is  reiterated  and  confirmed  in 
the  Form  of  Concord,  page  588. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  stated  that  the  Keformer 
not  only  lays  great  stress  upon  the  words,  This  is  my 
body,  etc.,  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  but  also  repeatedly 
appeals,  to  show  the  propriety  for  so  doing,  to  St.  Au- 
gustine's axiom,  "  Accedat  verbum  ad  elementum,  et  fit 
sacramentum," — that  is,  the  words.  This  is  my  body, 
added  to  the  sacramental  bread  and  wine,  constitute 
a  sacrament.  Hence,  that  a  sacrament  may  be  thus 
constituted,  it  seems  the  words  of  Christ  must  be 
taken  literally,  notwithstanding  the  body  and  blood  of 
our  Lord  are  said  not  to  be  manducated  or  eaten  cor- 
poreally, but  spiritually,  and  in  a  supernatural  and 
incomprehensible  manner,  though  they  are  orally 
brought,  like  ordinary  food,  under  the  proper  influence 


120  TEE  DOCTRINE  OF 

of  the  digestive  organs.  All  this,  it  seems,  happens 
thus,  or  is  brought  about  in  this  way,  for  the  sake  of 
sacramental  effect  1  Alas,  it  is  diflScult  to  go  forth  from 
the  bosom  of  a  corrupt  Church  without  bearing  away 
with  us  some  spot  or  wrinkle!  Romanism,  once  firmly 
fixed  in  the  soul,  though  renounced  and  abhorred,  no 
Christian  chemistry  can  ever  quite  neutralize  or  ob- 
literate I 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  12I 


seotxo:n-     ^tii. 

the  doctrine  of  the  real  presence,  in  the 
lord's  supper,  must  re,  forever,  retained; 
for  the  rook  of  concord,  of  which  it  forms 
a  part,  is  required  to  re  subscribed. 


CHAPTER     I. 

Students  and  Ministers,  at  Present  received  into  the  German  Evan- 
gelical Lutheran  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  and  Adjacent 
States,  are  obliged  to  subscribe  all  the  Symbolical  Books  or  Con- 
fessions of  Faith. 

The  time  is  not  very  remote  when  the  creed  of  this 
Ministerium  was  rather  undefined  and  vacillating  than 
clearly  expressed  or  accurately  understood;  and  it 
would  have  been  impossible  to  recognize  its  tendency 
or  utterance  as,  in  any  degree,  implying  general  unan- 
imity. Its  faith  in  "the  commandments  of  men,"  as 
doctrines  of  the  Church,  had  suffered  signal  decay, 
while  the  affectionate  fellowship,  love,  and  good-wili 
subsisting  among  its  members,  shone  out  with  re- 
splendent lustre.  Doubtless  opinions  still  differ,  but 
differences  of  opinions  are  seldom  elicited,  or  forced  to 
the  surface,  while  usually  sufficient  concord  prevails 
to  insure  harmony  in   counsel   and    unity  of   action. 

11 


122  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

CircumstaDces,  in  regard  to  this  subject,  have  materi- 
ally altered,  and  this  Ministerium,  once  lenient  and 
forbearing  almost  to  excess,  exercises,  at  present,  con- 
siderable rigor  in  its  administration,  manifesting,  in 
the  opinion  of  some,  a  spirit  not  quite  compatible  with 
liberty  of  conscience,  or  the  character  of  our  free  in- 
stitutions. Formerly  indifferentism,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  distinguished  its  dogmatic  views,  and  few,  per- 
haps, of  its  members  thought  either  of  the  necessity 
or  the  expediency  of  subscription  to  a  creed  ;  but  stu- 
dents who  are  now  received  into  this  Ministerium, 
after  a  course  of  preparatory  training,  are  required, 
as  soon  as  the  solemn  act  of  their  ordination  is  com- 
pleted, to  subscribe  unto  its  ample  creed  or  confession 
of  faith. 

The  same  creed-subscription  is  demanded  of  those 
ministers  who  have  heretofore  labored  outside  of  the 
pale  of  this  Ministerium,  and  who  now  apply  for  ad- 
mission to  membership.  In  neither  case,  however, 
as  far  as  is  known  to  the  writer,  is  this  fact  formally 
announced  in  the  constitution  of  this  Ministerium,  but 
the  truth  is,  notwithstanding,  as  it  is  here  stated. 
"  When  Evangelical  Lutheran  ministers,"  says  the 
constitution  of  this  Ministerium,  "  who  have  been 
ordained  by  any  other  Ministerium  in  the  United 
States,  or  in  any  foreign  country,  or  lawfully  ordained 
ministers  of  another  Christian  denomination,  apply 
for  reception  into  this  Ministerium,  they  shall  produce 
satisfactory  evidence  that  they  have  maintained  an 
unblemished  character  in  their  previous  ecclesiastical 
relation,  and  be  subjected  to  a  colloquium  with  the 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  123 

Examining  Committee,  in  order  to  establish  their 
agreement  with  the  Confession  and  usage  of  this  Min- 
isteriupiy 

At  their  installation,  the  Professors  in  the  Philadel- 
phia Seminary  are  required  to  make  the  following 
enunciation  of  their  faith,  according  to  Article  2,  Sec- 
tion 3,  of  the  Constitution  of  the  Seminary  :  "  I  believe 
that  the  unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  is,  in  all  its 
parts,  in  harmony  with  the  Rule  of  Faith,  and  is  a 
correct  exhibition  of  doctrine.  And  I  believe  that  the 
Apology,  the  Catechisms  of  Luther,  the  Schmalkald 
Articles,  and  the  Formula  of  Concord,  are  a  faithful 
development  and  defence  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  of 
the  Augsburg  Confession.  And  all  my  teachings  shall 
be  in  conformity  with  His  word  and  the  above  con- 
fessions." 

"What  is  especiaHy  noticeable  here  is,  that  the  con- 
fessions of  faith  enumerated  in  this  article  are  put 
upon  a  parity  with  the  word  of  God ;  they  conform 
now,  and  the  idea  held  out  is,  of  course,  that  they 
always  will  conform,  which  is  erroneous,  indeed  he- 
retical ;  for  an  appeal  from  the  human  creed  to  the 
Scriptures  should  always  be  deemed  in  order,  and  will 
never  be  refused,  except  where  ecclesiastical  despotism 
prevails. 

"All  questions  concerning  the  faith  of  the  Church 
and  the  administration  of  the  Sacraments,"  we  are 
informed  in  the  second  chapter  of  this  constitution, 
"shall  be  decided  in  accordance  with  this  Rule,  and 
with  these  Confessions."     This  Rule  and  these  Con- 


124  ^^^  DOCTRINE  OF 

fessions  are  thus  described  :*  "This  Synod  confesses 
that  the  Canonical  Books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments are  the  Word  of  God,  given  by  inspiration  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  are  the  clear,  only,  and  sufficient 
Rule  of  Faith;  that  three  General  Creeds,  the  Apos- 
tles', the  Nicene,  and  the  Athanasian,  exhibit  the  faith 
of  the  Church  universal,  in  accordance  with  this 
Rule; — that  i\iQ  unaltered  A\xg&hmg  Confession  is,t 
in  all  its  parts,  in  harmony  with  the  Rule  of  Faith, 
and  is  a  correct  exhibition  of  doctrine  ; — and  that  the 
Apology,  the  two  Catechisms  of  Luther,  the  Schmal- 
kald  Articles,  and  the  Formula  of  Concord,  are  a  faithful 
development  and  defence  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Word 
of  God,  and  of  the  Augsburg  Confession."! 

*  Though  I  have  already  pointed  out  the  nature  and  extent  of  the 
creed  of  this  Ministerium  as  the  true  and  literal  expression  of  Sym- 
bolical Lutheranism,  yet  I  deem  it  not  improper  or  superfluous  to  lay 
it  once  more  before  the  reader  in  the  Ministerium's  own  language. 

f  "  In  the  year  fifteen  hundred  and  forty,"  writes  Schott,  in  his 
"  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession,"  "  Melanchthon  published  a  Latin 
edition  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  in  which  he  left  out  of  the  10th 
Article,  treating  of  the  Sacrament,  the  words :  adsint  et  distri- 
huantur,  and  in  their  stead,  added:  exhibeantur ;  so  that  the  whole 
passage  read  as  follows  :  De  ccena  Domini  docent,  quod  cum  pane  et 
vino  vere  exhiheantur  corpus  et  sanguis  Christi  rescentihus  in  ccena 
Domini  ;  but  the  words,  et  improhant  secus  docentes,  therefore  the 
opposite  doctrine  is  rejected — which  were  directed  against  Zwingli's 
and  Calvin's  followers, — he  entirely  left  out." 

The  meaning  of  this  is,  that,  instead  that  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  are  really  present  in,  with,  and  under  the  bread  and  wine  in  the 
Lord's  Supper,  the  bread  and  wine  only  exhibit  or  represent  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ. 

J  Here  we  are  told  that  the  inspired  word  of  God  "  is  the  clear 
and   sufl&cient   rule  of  faith."     If  this  is  so,  why  is  the  Christian 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  125 


CHAPTER     II. 

By   Subscription  to   an   Unalterable   Creed   Progress   in   Religious 
Knowledge  is  stayed,  and  Violence  done  to  Conscience. 

Religious  associations  cannot  exist,  or  its  members 
act  in  concert,  unless  they  have  views  and  feelings, 
to  a  certain  extent,  in  common.  "Can,"  writes  the 
Prophet  Amos,  "  two  walk  together  unless  they  are 
agreed  ?"  But,  to  a  mutual  agreement  to  carry  out  the 
principles  of  the  gospel  and  accomplish  all  the  good 
that  is  in  our  power,  according  to  the  measure  of  Divine 
grace  vouchsafed  to  us,  it  is  neither  necessary  nor 
required  that  we  should  unconditionally  obligate  our- 
selves to  a  perpetual  observance  of  a  Confession  of 
Faith.  The  human  mind  is  God-destined  to  progress- 
ive development;  and  to  fetter  and  inthrall  it  by  ab- 
solute submission  to  human  opinion,  however  worthy 
of  attention  such  opinion  maybe  deemed  to  be,  is  a 

Church  pestered  and  rent  with  so  many  conflicting  human  creeds? 
If  the  Scriptures  are  the  only  rule,  it  is  clear  there  can  be  no  other, 
and  why,  then,  oflFcr  another  ?  Nay,  if  the  Scriptures  are  the  clear, 
only,  and  suflBcieut  rule  of  faith,  we  have  no  need  of  the  interposi- 
tion of  the  authoritative  ipae  dixit  of  a  St.  Augustine,  a  Thomas 
Aquinas,  a  Luther,  or  a  Calvin.  Yet  I  consider  it  both  a  pleasure 
and  a  duty  to  listen  to  the  teachings  of  learned  and  pious  men  of 
past  ages,  and  to  entertain  with  proper  respect  their  opinions  as 
evidences  of  private.  Christian  convictions,  but  not  as  a  regula 
fidei  or  rule  of  faith  ! 

11* 


126  TEE  DOCTRINE  OF 

criminal  encroachment  upon  the  rights  of  conscience, 
engraven  in  the  soul  by  the  hand  of  God  himself. 
Man's  action  must  be  free,  otherwise  it  lacks  the  at- 
tributes of  humanity,  and  is  destitute  of  responsibility. 
What  Milton  writes  of  the  freedom  of  the  spirits  in 
heaven,  to  stand  or  fall,  is  literally  applicable  to  man- 
kind, and  properly  deserves  a  notice  in  this  place.  In 
his  "Paradise  Lost,"  the  stern  poet  thus  sings: 

"  Not  free,  what  proof  could  they  have  given  sincere 
Of  true  allegiance,  constant  faith  or  love, 
Where  only  what  they  needs  must  do  appear'd ; 
Not  what  they  would  ?     What  praise  could  they  receive  ? 
What  pleasure  I  from  such  obedience  paid, 
When  will  and  reason  (reason  also  is  choice) 
Useless  and  vain,  of  freedom  both  despoil'd, 
Made  passive  both,  had  served  necessity, 
Not  me?"   etc. 

If  human  creeds  are  irrevocably  to  bind  the  soul, 
the  Bible  ceases  to  have  formative  power  in  our  reli- 
gious investigations,  and  it  can  no  longer  be  counted 
among  the  agencies  of  our  salvation.  In  such  case  it  be- 
comes, first,  superfluous,  and  secondly,  obsolete,  when 
the  pope — Protestant  or  Roman  Catholic,  it  matters 
little — will  say  to  the  friend  and  the  pupil  of  the  Bible 
as  Pio  Nono  did  to  his  youthful  chaplain,  ^avazzi, — 
DOW  Father  Gavazzi,  the  controlling  spirit  of  the  Free- 
Church  movement  in  Italy, — when  the  latter,  in  a  dis- 
course in  the  Church  of  St.  John  Lateran,  on  the 
day  this  pope  was  to  assume  the  tiara  or  triple 
crown,  spoke  in  favor  of  circulating  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. Summoned  into  his  presence,  the  pope,  among 
other  reprimands,  thus  addressed  the  incipient  reformer : 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  127 

"  You  spoke*  of  tlic  circulation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures ; 
are  you  mad  ?  The  Bible  is  a  theological  work,  to  be 
locked  oul}'  iu  the  libraries  of  ordained  priests.  Would 
you  revolutionize  the  world,  young  sir?" 

Thus,  where  creedism  prevails,  as  is  now  too  much 
the  case,  even  among  Protestant  denominations,  who 
appear  to  prefer  an  inane  ritualism  to  the  untinseled 
worship  taught  in  the  gospel,  instead  of  a  direct,  quick- 
ening Bible  influence,  the  Bible  must,  sooner  or  later, 
meet  a  fate  similar  to  that  which  has  befallen  it  in 
papal  countries,  where — in  rare  cases  only — a  special 
license  from  the  bishop  can  authorize  the  reading  of 
it,  and  where  the  people  have  become  the  easy  prey  of 
designing  priests.  There  is  no  other  alternative  ;  we 
are  free  only  in  as  far  as  "the  Son  of  God  makes  us 
free,"  John,  viii.  36  ;  he  failing  us,  through  Jesuitic 
craft  or  idolatrous  devotion  to  human  authority,  we 
are  inevitably  doomed  to  spiritual  degradation  and 
slavery  :  when  the  Ark  of  God  fell  into  the  unclean 
hands  of  the  Philistines,  Israel's  polar  star  was 
quenched  in  night !  Let  us,  then,  hold  fast,  with  Her- 
culean grasp,  what  has  been  intrusted  to  our  care,  as 
God's  best  gift  to  man, — the  Bible,  "  that  no  man  may 
take  our  crown,"  llevelation,  iii.  11. 

If  unconditional  subscription  to  creeds  is  to  control 
the  convictions  and  the  duties  of  the  theologian,  he 
has  no  need  to  pass  through  a  long  and  laborious 
course  of  study  to  qualify  himself  for  the  proper  dis- 
charge of  the  functions  of  his  office.     All  he  needs,  to 

*  See  Lutheran  Obnerver,  June  21,  1872. 


128  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

be  an  orthodox  and  efficient  minister,  is  implicitly  to 
yield  assent  to  the  confession  of  faith  prescribed  by 
his  religious  association,  and  in  his  pulpit  and  cate- 
chetical exercises  servilely  impart  and  disseminate  its 
peculiar  doctrines  and  institutions.  If  any  of  these  are 
unscriptural,  they  are  unscrupulously  handed  down  to 
distant  ages,  as  chaff  among  the  wheat,  and,  for  errors 
in  faith  or  practice,  there  is  no  remedy.  The  Keal 
Presence,  for  example,  must  not  be  doubted  ;  man's 
utter  moral  impotence  not  suspected  ;  and  his  uncon- 
ditional predestination  not  questioned.  Under  such 
appalling  circumstances,  it  is  needless  to  exhort  the 
minister  to  study  to  show  himself  *'  approved  unto 
God,  a  workman  that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed,  rightly 
dividing  the  word  of  truth,"  2  Timothy,  ii.  15,  The 
Bible,  being  kept  in  the  background,  or,  in  a  doctrinal 
point  of  view,  altogether  ignored,  human  opinion 
henceforth  supplants  the  oracles  of  God,  and  the 
inquiry  is  virtually  no  longer,  What  do  the  Scriptures 
teach,  but  what  teach  such  men  as  Luther,  or  Calvin, 
or  Wesley,  or  Menno,  or  Swedenborg?  etc.  Their 
opinions  have  for  centuries  been  oracular  in  a  large 
portion  of  Christendom,  and,  being  the  received  and 
honored  Shibboleths  of  the  different  sects,  who  are 
indebted  to  them  for  their  denominational  existence, 
they  will  be,  as  unalterable  rules  of  faith, — instead  of 
advancing  with  the  progress  of  biblical  light, — inviola- 
bly transmitted  to  future  ages  :  the  wheel  of  time  can 
move  only  in  the  old  rut,  which  is  deemed  safe,  in 
proportion  as  it  is  deep  and  muddy  ! 

The  attempt  to  bind  the   believer,  for  all  time   to 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  129 

come,  to  the  opinions  of  men  of  former  ages,  is  un- 
scriptural,  iinprotestant,  and  unreasonal)le.  Lutber, 
though,  unhappily,  not  al\va3'S  consistent  in  his  views, 
more  than  once  expressed  the  generous  sentiment  that, 
rather  than  liis  writings  should  draw  away  the  atten- 
tion of  mankind  from  the  Bible,  he  wished  that  they 
might  all  be  committed  to  the  flames.  Then,  heed- 
ing such  wise  teaching,  let  us  beware  that  subscription 
to  creeds  does  not  petrify  our  church-life,  or  swathe 
the  living  in  the  mouldy  bands  of  the  niched  mummy. 
Unconditional  creed-subscription  often  exercises  a 
very  pernicious  influence  upon  the  mind  and  fortune  of 
the  subscriber.  If  he  continues  true  to  his  traditional 
creed,  he  is,  of  course,  past  improvement,  and,  like 
the  barren  fig-tree,  he  may  justly  be  supposed  to 
"  cumber  the  ground  ";  if,  on  the  contrary,  he  extends 
his  researches  beyond  it,  and  finds  the  word  of  God 
and  his  confessions  of  faith  at  variance,  he  will  either 
suppress  his  discoveries,  and  thus  dissemble,  in  order 
to  continue  in  the  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  his  present 
relations,  or  he  will,  like  a  true  man,  boldly  avow  his 
altered  sentiments,  and,  in  so  doing,  be  sure  to  be 
branded  as  a  heretic.  The  consequence  is,  a  blight  is 
henceforth  shed  upon  his  career.  Alas  that  such 
is  the  case,  but  an  "  offence  "  like  this,  in  the  language 
of  Shakspeare,  "  is  rank ;  it  smells  to  heaven  !"* 

*  In  a  Sermon  on  Stead/astneas  in  Doctrine  and  Duty,  "  Delivered  at 
the  Opening  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fourth  Annual  Conven- 
tion of  the  German  Evangelical  Lutheran  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Adjacent  States,  Easton,  Trinity  Sunday,  June  4,  1871,  by 
Charles  F.  Schaeffer,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Theology  in  the  Theological 


130  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

Seminary  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  at  Philadelphia,"  the 
inviolable  perpetuity  of  the  Symbolical  Books  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  is  thus  set  forth  and  inculcated. 

On  page  6,  the  Professor  says  of  Luther  and  his  associates  in  the 
Reformation,  that  when  God  charged  them  with  this  commission, 
"  they  never  could  have  accomplished  the  great  work  assigned  to 
them  unless  he  had  endued  them  with  a  living  and  irresistible 
faith."  From  this  announcement,  the  conclusion  seems  necessarily 
to  follow,  that  what  the  Reformers  taught,  thus  "endued,"  must  be 
as  much  God's  word  as  the  Bible  itself.  For  a  faith  that  is,  at  the 
the  same  time,  God-given,  living,  and  irresistible,  must  rank  among 
the  highest  species  of  faith,  and  cannot,  therefore,  admit  anything 
superior  to  it.  Of  course,  the  creed  of  the  Reformers  must  have 
binding  force  equal  to  that  of  the  Bible  itself. 

Again,  on  page  7,  the  Professor  writes  :  "We  are  willing  to  make 
every  reasonable  concession  to  others  for  the  sake  of  peace,  and  for 
the  purpose  of  conciliating  them,  but  let  none  ask  us  to  deny  or  sup- 
press any  of  the  holy  doctrines  of  our  Church,"  etc.  From  this 
statement,  I  infer  that  there  is  little  hope  that  the  doctrine  of  the 
Real  Presence  will  be  erased  from  the  Articles  of  Faith  of  old  Lu- 
theranism  without  a  severe  struggle. 

Finally,  agreeably  to  what  the  Professor  asserts,  pages  14  and  15, 
the  doctrines  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  of  the  Symbolical  Books  are 
of  equal  authority,  and  hence,  "Our  creed  must  be  maintained  in  its 
absolute  indejyendence,  without  any  increase  or  diminution  suggested 
by  the  views  of  men."  No  advancement  in  religious  knowledge  can 
be  made,  since  God  "hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  his 
Son,"  Hebrews,  i.  2.  Comment  here  is  useless;  and  I  will  only  add 
that,  according  to  Professor  Schaeffer,  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
sacred  to  Old  Lutheranism,  appears  to  be  as  fixed  and  immutable  as 
the  immortal  laws  of  the  ancient  Medes  and  Persians,  or  like  the 
haughty  reply  of  Pilate  to  the  chief  priests  of  the  Jews,  "  What  I 
have  written,  I  have  written,"  John  xix.  22. 

In  the  seventeenth  paragraph  of  the  twentieth  chapter  of  the 
fourth  book  of  his  "  Essay  Concerning  the  Human  Understanding," 
Locke  thus  writes  on  servile  or  implicit  submission  to  received  opin- 
ion :  "  The  last  wrong  measure  of  probability  I  shall  take  notice  of, 
and  which  keeps  in  ignorance  or  error  more  people  than  all  the 
other  together,  is  that  which  I  mentioned  in  the  foregoing  chapter ; 


THE  LORD'S  SUFFER.  131 

I  mean  the  giving  up  our  assent  to  the  common  received  opinions, 
either  of  our  friends  or  party,  neighborhood  or  country.  How  many 
men  have  no  other  ground  for  their  tenets  than  the  supposed  hon- 
esty, or  learning,  or  number,  of  those  of  the  same  profession  !  As 
if  honest  or  bookish  men  could  not  err,  or  truth  were  to  bo  estab- 
lished by  the  vote  of  the  multitude  !— yet  this,  with  most  men,  serves 
the  turn.  The  tenet  has  had  the  attestation  of  reverent  antiquity, 
it  comes  to  me  with  the  passport  of  former  ages,  and  therefore  I  am 
secure  in  the  reception  I  give  it  :  other  men  have  been,  and  are  of 
the  same  opinion,  and  therefore  it  is  reasonable  for  me  to  embrace 
it.  A  man  may  more  justifiably  throw  up  cross  and  pile  for  his 
opinions,  than  take  them  up  by  such  measures.  All  men  are  liable 
to  error,  and  most  men  are  in  many  points,  by  passion  or  interest, 
under  temptation  to  it.  If  we  could  but  see  the  secret  motives  that 
influence  the  men  of  name  and  learning  in  the  world,  and  the  lead- 
ers of  parties,  we  should  not  always  find  that  it  was  the  embracing 
of  truth  for  its  own  sake  that  made  them  espouse  the  doctrines  they 
owned  and  maintained.  This  at  least  is  certain,  there  is  not  an 
opinion  so  absurd  which  a  man  may  not  receive  upon  this  ground. 
There  is  no  error  to  be  named  which  has  not  had  its  professors;  and 
a  man  shall  never  want  crooked  paths  to  walk  in,  if  he  thinks  that 
he  is  in  the  right  way  whenever  he  has  the  footsteps  of  others  to 
follow." 


132  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 


THE  BIBLE,  NOT  MAN  OR  HUMAN  DICTATION, IS  THE 
ONL  Y  A  UTHOBITY  IN  FAITH  AND  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  : 
A  PRINCIPLE  OF  INTERPRETATION  WHICH,  IN  THE 
PRESENT  LIGHT  OF  EXEGESIS,  MUST  PROVE  FATAL 
TO  THE  DOGMA  OF  THE  REAL  PRESENCE. 


When  Christ  appeared  in  Palestine,  clothed  in  the 
exalted  character  of  Saviour  of  the  world,  he  pro- 
claimed the  glad  tidings  of  the  gospel,  with  rare  ex- 
ceptions, to  the  illiterate  Jews, —  "the  lost  sheep  of 
the  House  of  Israel," — whose  adaptedness  for  hear- 
ing the  Divine  word  consisted  simply  in  a  sincere 
desire  to  be  instructed  in  the  principles  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  and  in  the  possession  and  exercise  of 
plain  common  sense.  It  happened  occasionally  that 
the  Saviour,  as  I  have  already  stated  in  another  place, 
used  phrases  or  introduced  subjects  which  were  not 
immediately  intelligible  by  his  audience,  and  then, 
finding  that  he  was  not  understood,  or  being  asked 
for  an  explanation  of  the  discourse  or  saying  with 
which  he  had  entertained  them,  he  readily  complied 
with  their  wishes ;  and  thus  his  instructions  seem,  in 
most  cases  at  least,  to  have  been  properly  appreci- 
ated, and  to  have  produced  a  salutary,  if  not  always 


Tin-:  LORD'S  SUPPKU.  133 

a  Rjivinp:,  influence  upon  the  hearts  of  his  unsophisti- 
cated hearers.  Only  those  who  came  to  liini,  not  to 
learn,  but  to  scoff  and  cavil,  went  away  dissatisfied  or 
unanieliorated.  Otherwise  he  taught  his  hearers  with 
so  nuich  plainness  of  manner  and  simplicity  of  style, 
that  the  most  ignorant  or  stupid  must  needs  have  un- 
derstood him.  Commentaries  and  notes  were  as  little 
known  as  they  were  needed  in  those  pristine  days  of 
Christ-teaching,  and  the  Divine  mission  of  the  Son  of 
God  could  be  well  enough  understood  without  such 
helps  as  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  the  Articles  of  the 
Synod  of  Dort,  or  the  Form  of  Concord.  What,  man, 
erring,  sinful  man,  is  to  be  saved,  and  Christ,  who, 
animated  by  sentiments  of  mercy  towards  him,  comes 
expressly  from  heaven  to  save  him,  fails  to  make  him- 
self intelligible,  without  the  exegetical  aid  of  a  Luther 
or  a  Calvin,  a  Scott  or  a  Henry,  a  Rosenmiiller,  a 
Tholuck,  a  Lange,  and  a  multitudinous  host  of  other 
ancient  and  modern  expositoA  !  What  strange,  what 
stupendous,  delusion ! 

It  is  time,  high  time,  for  mankind  to  wake  up  to  the 
fact,  that  whatever  is  really  essential  to  our  salvation 
is  palpable  to  the  most  ordinary  understanding,  and 
that  what  is  beyond  the  power  of  common  sense  com- 
prehension is  not  included  in  the  means  or  conditions 
of  salvation,  but  is  simply  matter  for  learned  specula- 
tion or  philosophic  disquisition.  For  in  what  does  it 
properly  and  mainly  consist?  In  this,  that  Christ  is 
our  Saviour;  that,  accordingly,  we  must  put  our  trust  in 
him  in  order  to  be  saved,  and  do  what  he  requires  of 
us,  as  far  as  is  possible,  or  God  gives  us  grace ;  that  if 

12 


X34  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

we  do  thus,  God  will  deal  mercifully  towards  us,  and 
forgive  us  our  sins :  this,  I  conceive,  is  the  sum  of  the 
whole  matter,  in  a  few  words ;  and  to  comprehend  it, 
observe  it,  and  realize  it,  man  is, — with  the  aid  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  ready  to  co-operate  with  him  in  the  attain- 
ment of  all  truth  appertaining  to  his  salvation, — fully 
competent.  Of  these  indisputable  facts  the  Apostles 
were  well  aware,  and  when,  therefore,  they  wrote  their 
epistles  to  individuals  or  congregations,  or  to  Chris- 
tians composing  more  numerous  bodies,  such  as  those 
designated  as  strangers,  elect,  scattered  over  different 
parts  of  Asia  Minor,  1  Peter,  i.  1-2,  they  habitually 
invited  their  attention  to  the  prominent  facts  in  the 
Christian  system  of  redemption,  and  exhorted  them 
diligently  to  conform  to  them  in  their  thoughts  and 
actions ;  thus,  with  the  implied  or  expressed  assisting 
grace  from  on  high,  making  sure  of  their  salvation.  It 
would  be  exceedingly  strange,  indeed,  if  the  heaven- 
sent teachers  of  salvation,  and  among  these  the  ador- 
able Son  of  God  himself,  had  taught  a  way  of  salva- 
tion which  nobody  could  understand  without  the  pre- 
sumptuous interposition  of  uninspired  man,  and  that 
too  only  after  the  lapse  of  generations  and  centuries  I 
What,  to  come  to  save,  and  to  suffer  and  die  to  save, 
and  yet  not  save,  because  nobody  can  form  a  proper 
idea  either  of  the  meaning  or  the  terms  involved  in 
the  plan  of  salvation  without  the  dicta  of  human  de- 
vices or  the  creeds  of  sects  !  Preposterous  I  Man's 
competence  to  an  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  design 
and  conditions  of  the  New-Testament  system  of  re- 
demption is  clearly  set  forth  in  the  duty  which  Christ 


THE  LORD'S  SrPPF/.\  135 

and  tlie  Apostlos  enjoined  npon  liim,  in  the  repeated 
admonitions  prrso^m////  to  investigate  the  sense  and 
scope  of  the  word  of  God.  To  this  fact  I  sliall  now 
call  attention.* 


•■•■■  In  tho  Reformed  Church  Messenger  of  the  2(1  of  February,  1872, 
appoars  an  article  on  Dr.  Krauth's  "  Conservative  Reformation,"  by 
J.  W.  N., — that  is,  I  presume,  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Nevin.  The  following 
extract,  though  concise,  emtenttaJJii  represents  the  writer's  views,  as 
stated  in  that  article,  on  the  rank  and  use  of  the  Bible  in  the  Chris- 
tian Church  : 

"Neither  Luther,  nor  Zwingle,  nor  Melanchthon,  nor  Calvin  pro- 
fessed at  all  to  stand  upon  the  principles  of  the  Bible  and  private 
judgment  in  any  such  naked  view  as  that  taught  in  a  late  number 
of  the  'Catholic  World,'  on  Authority  in  Matters  of  Faith.  They 
had  a  very  clear  sense  of  Christianity  as  a  Divine  historical  fact, 
which  had  come  down  to  them  through  the  general  life  of  the  Church 
along  with  the  Bible,  on  objective  matters  of  faith  in  this  form,  which 
was  for  them  older  and  deeper  than  the  text  of  the  Bible,"  etc. 

Here  we  cannot  but  notice  the  assertion  of  a  principle  which 
favors  the  introduction  into  the  Protestant  Church  of  a  kind  of 
Christian  Tahnudism.  The  Reformers,  I  remark,  unanimously  re- 
jected, as  dogmatic  authority,  the  traditions  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  and  made  the  Bible  the  sole  normative  ground  in  matters  of 
faith  and  a  Christian  life;  but  this  fact,  I  regret  to  say,  does  not  seem 
to  satisfy  Dr.  Nevin.  Christianity,  in  his  opinion,  it  appears,  is 
sound  and  unexceptionally  orthodox  only  then  when  it  combines 
the  traditions  of  a  corrupt  Church  with  the  word  of  God  !  The  indi- 
vidual, either  as  clergyman  or  layman,  has  no  interpretative  Scrip- 
ture rights ;  these,  alas  !  are  vested  only  in  the  dominant  party,  or 
the  proper  hicrophants  of  the  Church.  The  Divine  afflatus  is,  ac- 
cording to  the  Gospel,  the  free  gift  of  God  to  every  believing,  peni- 
tent soul,  made  by  Christ  "a  king  and  priest  unto  God,"  Revelation, 
i.  6,  V.  10;  but  the  Church,  in  its  modest  sacerdotal  capacity,  lays  ex- 
clusive claim  to  the  exalted  prerogative,  and  hence  man  must  no 
longer  presume  to  exercise  his  Christian  functions  autonomically,  aa 
it  is  fit  that  he  should,  but  he  must — to  be  saved — renounce  all  claims 


136  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

In  John,  V.  39,  Jesus  bids  the  Jews  "  search  the 
Scriptures,"  adding  that  "  they  bore  testimony  of  him." 

to  free  agency,  and  ever  humbly  sit  at  the  feet  of  some  infallible 
Gamaliel  ! 

In  common  with  many  others,  I  have  been  led  to  think  that  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament  were  inspired  men,  and  that  the  Reve- 
lation, transmitted  to  us  in  the  Gospel,  was  the  true  and  all-suflBcient 
word  of  G^od;  but  it  appears  now  that  I  was  wrong,  and  that  as  the 
Jew  had  his  Talmudic  reveries  beside  the  Old  Testament,  so  the 
Christian  must  have  his  in  addition  to  the  New !  It  is  a  question 
perhaps  not  easily  solved,  whether  the  Pilates  of  the  palace  or  the 
teachers  in  the  sanctuary  have  done  most  harm  to  the  Son  of  God ! 

The  gist  of  the  position  advanced  by  Dr.  Nevin  seems  to  resolve 
itself  into  the  following  propositions  :  There  is  an  outward  testimony 
in  behalf  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  Church, — the  testimony  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  obtained  immediately  from  the  source  whence  is  de- 
rived the  Christian  Revelation  itself;  in  consequence  of  this  testi- 
mony, faith  is  produced,  and  this  faith,  thus  produced,  becomes,  in  a 
most  important  sense,  an  independent  witness  of  the  truth  of  Reve- 
lation. Scripture  and  the  Church,  therefore,  only  serve  to  bring 
Christ  into  view  in  his  historical  aspect;  but  they  cannot  originate 
the  faith  that  sees  in  him  the  "Son  of  the  Living  God":  this  can 
come  only  from  the  light  of  his  own  presence  by  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Such  faith  has  the  assurance  that  it  is  true  as  well  as 
the  object  towards  which  it  is  directed.  It  says  to  Scripture  and  the 
Church  :  "  Now  I  believe,  not  because  of  your  saying ;  for  I  have 
heard  and  seen  for  myself,  and  know  that  this  is  indeed  the  Christ, 
the  Saviour  of  the  world." 

I  have  always  been  led  to  think  that  the  Holy  Ghost  influenced 
the  human  mind  through  the  Gospel,  and  not  by  means  of  a  new  and 
independent  Revelation,  made  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  virtue  of 
a  special  economy  of  grace,  through  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  contradis- 
tinction of  the  written  word  of  God.  Luther's  exegesis  on  sanctifica- 
tion,  in  the  third  article  of  the  Apostles'  Creed,  is  decidedly  averse  to 
the  Doctor's  hypothesis.  As  to  the  Westminster  Catechism,  to  which 
Doctor  Nevin  refers  for  authentication  of  his  views,  it  clearly  testifies 
against  a  dualistic  Revelation  in  the  Christian  system  of  redemption  ; 


Till-:  LOitirs  SUPPER.  137 

Even  these  priest-ridden  Jews  arc  deemed  capable  of 
making  an  accurate  investi«,^ation  of  the  writings  of  the 

for  it  teaches  that  the  "  inward  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  bears  witness 
hi/  and  uuth  the  Word  in  our  hearts."* 

The  following  specimen  of  Protestant  pravity  deserves  to  be  hold 
up  to  the  serious  consideration  and  profound  disgust  of  every  evan- 
gelical Christian  ;  a  Christian  who  loves  Christ  more  than  Loyola, 
and  sets  a  higher  value  upon  the  Gospel  than  upon  papal  practices, 
wickedly  aiming  to  overthrow  the  authority  of  Divine  revelation, 
and  to  rob  the  followers  of  Christ  of  the  inalienable  right  of  private 
judgment. 

In  the  Lutheran  Ohserver  of  the  1st  of  March,  1872,  I  find,  on 
page  3,  an  article  from  the  pen  of  J.  H.  W.  Stuckenberg,— meaning, 
no  doubt,  the  distinguished  Lutheran  clergyman  bearing  that  name, 

entitled  "  From  St.   Louis  to  Rome.     Professors    Baumstark  and 

Preuss."  ''  On  the  12th  of  September,  1869,  H.  Baumstark,  professor 
of  the  theological  seminary  of  the  Missouri  Synod,  at  St.  Louis,  en- 
tered the  Romish  Church ;  and  on  the  25th  of  last  January,  Doctor 
Preuss,  professor  in  the  same  seminary,  followed  in  his  footsteps. 
These  facts  should  certainly  lead  the  members  of  that  Synod,  and  all 
who  bear  the  Lutheran  name,  to  serious  reflection.  Tractariauism 
in  the  Episcopal  Church  led  more  than  three  hundred  English  min- 
isters, and  many  laymen  of  that  Church,  into  the  Romish  Church. 
These  facts  speak  more  eloquently  and  convincingly  than  all  asser- 
tions that  Tractariauism  does  not  lead  to  Rome.  In  the  German  Re- 
formed and  Lutheran  Churches  there  are  similar  tendencies,  which 
only  the  blind  fail  to  see,  and  which  it  is  wicked  to  conceal. 

'<  Several  months  ago,  I  read  some  statements  which  seem  to  throw 
light  on  the  tendency  in  the  St.  Louis  Seminary.  I  read  them  to  a 
Missouri  Synod  man,  and  he  urged  me  to  publish  them.  But  I  re- 
frained from  doing  so,  because  I  thought  that  the  publication  of 
those  statements  might  serve  only  to  foster  useless  controversy.  But 
I  believe  it  to  be  a  duty  now  to  publish  them,  so  that  men  may  seo 
what  the  tendency  in  the  theological  seminary  in  St.  Louis  is. 

"About  the  same  time  that  Professor  IL  Baumstark  went  from  that 
seminary  into  the  Romish  Church,  a  brother  of  his,  in  Germany,  also 

*  See  Reformed  Church  Mcssemjcr,  March  20,  1872. 

12* 


138  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

Old  Testament,  in  respect  to  matters  appertaining  to 
their  salvation.  Paul  and  Silas,  having  been  treated 
with   much   contumely  at  Thessalonica,  the  brethren 

found  his  way  to  Rome.  They  then  published  a  book,  entitled  *  Our 
Ways  to  the  Catholic  Church,'  in  which  they  give  an  account  of  their 
change.  Some  statements  made  in  this  book,  by  the  former  Missouri 
professor,  are  very  significant.  From  a  German  religious  monthly, 
which  gives  a  review  of  the  book  of  the  two  brothers,  I  take  the  fol- 
lowing account,  given  by  H.  Baumstark,  lie  says  that  in  St.  Louis 
he  became  a  devoted  and  grateful  pupil  of  Prof.  Walther,  who,  on 
the  whole,  occupied  the  same  standpoint  he  had  thus  far  held.  There 
was,  however,  one  thing  in  the  theological  seminary  at  St.  Louis 
which  surprised  him,  namely,  the  entire  neglect  of  the  study  of  the 
sacred  Scriptures.  Baumstark  says:  'Of  all  the  various  subjects 
taught  in  the  Lutheran  theological  seminary, — of  which  dogmatics 
took  up  most  of  the  time, — exegesis  was  not  at  all  represented.  For 
the  two  hours  a  week  which  were  assigned  to  this  subject  were  taken 
up  with  dictations  of  explanations  of  old  Lutheran  theologians  on 
the  Sunday  gospels  and  epistles.'  But  why  was  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures  so  neglected  ?  Perhaps  the  following  statement  of  Baum- 
stark will  make  the  answer  evident.  He  declares  that  in  St.  Louis 
he  heard  for  the  first  time  the  principle  announced,  '  that  the  Sym- 
bolical books  are  not  to  be  interpreted  by  the  Scriptures;  but,  on 
the  contrary,  the  Scriptures  are  to  be  interpreted  by  the  Symbolical 
books  ;  dans  nicht  die  Si/mbolischen  BuecTier  nach  der  Schrift  auszulegen 
seien,  sondemmmgekehrt  die  Schrift  nach  den  Symbolischen  Buechern." 
These  are  the  statements  of  one  who  was  a  student  in  the  Mis- 
souri institutions,  then  a  preacher  and  zealous  defender  of  the  exclu- 
siveness  of  the  Missouri  Synod,  and  afterwards  a  professor  in  their 
theological  seminary.  They  throw  a  flood  of  light  on  the  tendencies 
in  the  seminary,  and  also  on  the  course  of  Baumstark  and  Preuss. 
With  such  facts  before  us,  it  does  not  seem  strange  that  the  step  from 
the  seminary  into  the  Romish  Church  is  so  easy.  The  only  wonder 
is  that  men,  teaching  such  doctrines  and  thus  treating  the  Scriptures, 
still  claim  to  be  Lutherans.  And  when  such  men  claim  to  be  the 
only  representatives  and  authoritative  interpreters  of  Lutheranism, 
we  can  only  regard  them  with  pity. 


77/ A'   LORD'S  SUPFKR.  139 

"sent  them  by  night  to  Berea."  "These  Bercans," 
we  are  told,  "  were  more  noble  than  those  in  Thos- 
salonica,  in  tliat  they  received  the  word  with  all 
readiness  of  mind,  and  searched  the  SciHpluj'ea  daily, 
ivhelher  those  things  were  so":  Acts,  xvii.  10,  11. 
These  singnlarly  judicious  Bereans,  thus  employing 
reason  and  personal  research  to  ascertain  the  truth  of 
the  doctrine  proclaimed  to  them  by  these  distinguished 
missionaries,  deserve,  on  account  of  this  wise  and  em- 
inently proper  conduct,  in  relation  to  a  matter  of  so 
much  importance  to  their  salvation,  to  have  a  monu- 
ment erected  to  their  memory  more  durable  than  brass, 
more  precious  than  gold,  and  high  as  the  heavens. 
Owing  to  this  praiseworthy  searching  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, the  Bereans  found  that  the  apostolic  teaching 
was  true,  and  they  believed:  Acts,  xvii.  12.  There 
would,  doubtless,  be  vastly  more  Christian  faith,  not 
hypocritical  faith-seeming,  if  it  was  based  upon  the 
result  of  candid  personal  investigation,  instead  of  blind 
confidence  and  servile  submission  to  hereditary,  often 
unbiblical,  dogmas  of  a  Church. 

Again,  1  Thessalonians,  v.  21,  St.  Paul  enjoins  it  as 
a  paramount  duty  on  all  Christians,  to  "  prove  all 
things,  and  hold  fast  that  wiiich  is  good."  To  do  this 
involves  not  only  the  ability  to  judge  what  is  good, 
but  also  the  right  to  reject  or  accept  as  is  deemed 
proper,  thus  forming  an  independent  decision,  and 
being  the  absolute  arbiters  of  our  action.  "Behold," 
writes  the  same  indefatigable  Apostle,  in  his  Letter  to 
the  Romans,  ii.  IT,  18,  "thou  art  called  a  Jew,  and 
restest  in  the  law,  and  makest  thy  boast  of  God,  and 


140  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

knowest  his  will,  and  approvest — after  proper  dis- 
crimiuation — the  things  that  are  more  excellent,  being 
instructed  out  of  the  law,"  etc.  This  praise,  thus 
lavished  upon  the  Jews  at  Rome,  seems  well  deserved, 
and  implies  a  habit  of  carefully  searching  the  Scrip- 
tures, independently  of  "  the  commandments  of  men" 
and  "the  traditions  of  the  elders."  High  encomiums 
are  bestowed  by  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  in  1 
Corinthians,  ii.  15,  16,  on  the  wise  and  exemplary 
practice  of  the  judicious  follower  of  Christ  to  self- 
determine  his  individual  faith,  asserting,  "  That  he 
that  is  spiritual — has  the  mind  of  Christ — judgeth  all 
things,  yet  he  himself  is  judged  of  no  man."  In  the 
following  passage,  recorded  in  1  Corinthians,  vii.  23, 
the  Christian  is  exhorted,  by  all  means,  to  maintain 
his  religious  independence  as  well  as  personal  integrity, 
and  never  to  lose  sight  of  his  individual  responsibility, 
in  these  emphatic  words :  "  Ye  are  bought  with  a  price ; 
be  not  ye  the  servants  of  men."  With  slight  variation 
of  expression,  this  timely  and  salutary  warning  is  thus 
repeated,  by  the  same  Apostle,  in  Galatians,  v.  1,  where 
he  says :  "  Stand  fast,  therefore,  in  the  liberty  where- 
with Christ  hath  made  us  free,  and  be  not  entangled 
again  with  the  yoke  of  bondage."  I  add,  that  whether 
the  yoke  is  a  Jewish  yoke,  as  was  the  case  here,  or  is 
a  Christian  yoke,  threatening  us,  as  at  present,  on  all 
sides,  it  behooves  us,  according  to  the  freedom-loving 
Apostle,  to  be  upon  our  guard,  and  resolutely,  as  well 
as  at  all  hazards,  to  stand  fast  in  our  Christ-given 
liberty.  The  text,  in  2  Timothy,  iii.  16,  17,  next 
claims  a  brief  attention.     It  relates  especially  to  the 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  141 

Christian  minister,  and  shows  conclusively  that  he,  in 
his  individual  capacity,  has  not  only  a  ])crfect  right  to 
use  the  Scriptures  in  spite  of  sacerdotal  control  or  ec- 
clesiastical prescription,  but  that  he  can  use  them  most 
profitably  and  savingly.  The  words  are  the  following: 
"  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is 
profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for 
instruction  in  righteousness  :  that  the  man  of  God  may 
be  perfect,  throughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works." 
Finally,  though  this  Scripture  declaration  of  equal 
rights  is,  by  no  means,  confined  to  the  foregoing  teach- 
ing, I  shall  call  attention  to  but  one  more  text,  relevant 
to  this  interesting  and  important  subject,  recorded  in 
Romans,  xiv.  4,  where  the  Apostle  thus  nobly  asserts 
the  absolute  individual  independence  of  every  Chris- 
tian in  matters  of  faith  and  practice,  without  regard 
to  Synod,  Ministerium,  or  "the  thunders  of  the  Vati- 
can."  "Who  art  thou,"  thus  writes  the  intrepid 
Apostle,  "that  judgest  another  man's  servant?  To 
his  own  master,  he  standeth  or  falleth.  Yea,  he  shall 
be  holden  up:   for  God  is  able  to  make  him  stand." 

Bil)le  Societies  send  the  word  of  God,  translated,  I 
am  informed,  into  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  lan- 
guages and  dialects,  everywhere,  without  comment  or 
proviso,  and  thus  indorse  as  well  as  premise  uncon- 
strained personal  research.  It  is  through  means  of 
these  philanthropic  institutions  that  there  circulate  at 
this  time  forty-three  millions  of  copies  of  the  word  of 
God  among  no  less  than  six  hundred  millions  of  human 
])eings.  Here  the  very  cheering  fact  is  presented  to 
our  notice,  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  disseminated 


142  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

among  about  one-half  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  globe, 
without  a  priestly  veto  prefixed  or  a  partj  creed  ap- 
pended to  them ;  and  yet  these  humane  and  indefat- 
igable societies  seem  to  think  that  the  myriad  souls 
to  whom  they  are  sent  may  be  saved  !  Thus,  then, 
I  think  I  have  demonstrated  that  the  Bible,  not  man 
or  human  dictation,  is  the  only  authority  in  faith  and 
Christian  life.* 


*  In  the  Biblical  Repository  and  Quarterly  Observer,  of  April, 
1835,  C.  E.  Stowe,  Professor  of  Biblical  Literature  in  Cincinnati 
Lane  Seminary,  in  an  article  on  "  Expository  Preaching,"  etc.,  gives 
utterance  to  the  following  truly  evangelical  and  admirable  senti- 
ments :  "Again — if  there  is  an  authorized  interpreter  of  the  Bible, 
his  interpretations  must  be  understood  by  the  common  laws  of  lan- 
guage; and  why  can  we  not  understand  revelation  itself  by  the  com- 
mon laws  of  language  as  well  as  the  interpreter  of  revelation  ?  What 
is  the  value  of  a  revelation  that  cannot  be  understood  without  an 
authorized  interpreter?  And  what  is  the  use  of  an  authorized  in- 
terpreter to  a  revelation  that  can  be  understood  without  one  ?  One 
or  the  other  is  certainly  needless ;  and  so  needless  an  expenditure  of 
means  does  not  look  lilie  the  simplicity  of  the  Divine  economy  in 
other  things.  The  Bible  gives  no  hint  of  any  such  power  of  author- 
itative interpretation,  and  reason  rejects  the  whole  theory  as  entirely 
repugnant  to  its  own  nature." 

The  Professor  adds  :  "  The  language  of  the  Bible  is  the  language 
of  men,  otherwise  it  would  be  of  no  use  to  men.  And  it  is  to  be  un- 
derstood just  as  all  other  human  language  is  understood.  It  is  ad- 
dressed to  the  common  sense  of  men,  and  common  sense  is  to  be  con- 
sulted in  its  interpretation." 


THE  LORD'S  SUrPER.  143 


CREEDS  ARE  NECESSARY  ONLY  WHERE  THERE  ARE 
SECTS,  BUT  SECTARIANISM  IS  FORBIDDEN,  1  CO- 
RINTHIANS, I.  10-18,  ///.  3-11;  THEREFORE  CREEDS 
ARE  FORBIDDEN.  THIS  BEING  THE  CASE,  THE 
DOGMA  OF  THE  REAL  PRESENCE  OCCUPIES  FOR- 
BIDDEN GROUND,  AND  IS  ITSELF,  OF  COURSE,— AS 
HUMAN  PRESCRIPTION,— FORBIDDEN. 


Many  persons  are  of  opinion  that  sectism  is  de- 
sirable as  a  powerful  incentive  to  Christian  zeal  and 
activity,  or,  at  least,  as  a  necessary  means  to  elicit 
emulation  among  the  different  denominations  of  Chris- 
tians, and  thus  to  call  forth  the  latent  energies  of  the 
faithful,  as  well  as  cherish  and  promote  a  lively  in- 
terest and  proper  enthusiasm  in  the  cause  of  religion 
generally  ;  but  such  views,  though  they  are  not  en- 
tirely devoid  of  truth,  are  altogether  antagonistic  to 
the  spirit  and  design  of  Christianity,  and  deserve  no 
notice,  except  in  so  far  as  they  are  an  evidence  of  the 
remarkable  manner  in  which  truth  and  error  may 
happen  to  converge  towards  incidental  points  of  ap- 
proximation. 

Religious  creeds  can  be  necessary  only  in  sectdom  ; 
or,  in  other  words,  when  the  Church  of  Christ  is  in  a 
state  of  sectism  :    torn   asunder,    and   bleeding  from 


144  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

wounds,  inflicted  by  mad  factions  contending  for  the 
mastery.  Then  it  is  that  lines  of  demarkation  are  re- 
quired, and  distinctive  Shibboleths,  as  watchwords 
and  symbols  of  recognition,  must  needs  be  introduced 
and  scrupulously  observed.  But  as  sectism  is,  as  I 
shall  soon  have  occasion  to  show,  contrary  to  the 
Scriptures,  and,  besides,  a  grievous  and  most  deplora- 
ble evil,  as  well  as  a  willful  and  wicked  disintegration 
and  distraction  of  the  body  of  Christ,  so,  of  course, 
all  human  creeds  are  not  only  superfluous  and  unne- 
cessary, but  absolutely  criminal ;  for  they  are  an  ex- 
press and  open  violation  of  "the  unity  of  the  spirit  in 
the  bond  of  peace,"  Ephesians,  iv.  3. 

"  Nur  der  Glauhens-Zicanrj  macht  Sekten  vnd  erhaelt  sie." 

The  origin  of  sects,  except  where  persecution  has 
done  its  demoniac  work,  is,  in  every  instance,  owing  to 
impure  motives  or  false  principles  of  religion.  Pride, 
obstinacy,  ambition,  hatred,  etc.,  and,  therefore,  unholy 
passions,  have  ordinarily  given  rise  to  the  hydra-headed 
monster  of  sect-Christianity :  the  glory  of  the  vulgar, 
the  contempt  and  pity  of  the  enlightened. 

When  it  is  affirmed  that  creeds  are  necessary  to 
meet  and  reconcile  the  discrepant  views  prevalent 
among  the  various  divisions  of  the  Christian  Church, 
and  thus  to  secure  harmony  and  combined  activity 
among  these  creed-bound  professors,  the  position  is 
false,  and  the  end  sought  to  be  attained  is  far  from 
being  always  realized,  as  the  following  facts  will  suf- 
ficiently testify.  In  1517  the  famous  Form  of  Concord 
was  composed,    *' in  which,"  writes  Haweis,  the  ec- 


77//;  LORirS  SUPPER.  I45 

clesiastical  historian,  ^^ihareal  manducation  of  Christ's 
body  and  hlood  in  the  Eucharist  was  established,  and 
heresy  and  excommunication  laid  on  all  who  refused 
this  as  an  article  of  faith,  with  pains  and  penalties  to 
be  enforced  by  the  secular  arm,"  etc.  Here  we  meet 
with  the  disagreeable  fact,  so  often  marring  the  mani- 
festation of  religious  life,  that  instead  of  a  peaceful, 
voluntary  agreement  in  this  dogma  of  "  the  real  man- 
ducation of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,"  secular 
compulsion  is  resorted  to,  and  unanimity  of  faith  en- 
forced by  acts  of  violence  and  injustice.  So  far,  indeed, 
was  this  Form  of  Concord  from  reconciling  the  dis- 
cordant elements  in  the  Lutheran  Church,  especially 
from  suppressing  the  much-dreaded  and  heartily-hated 
crypto-Calvinistic  and  Zwinglian  views  on  the  Lord's 
Supper,  that  the  seeds  of  contention  and  animosity 
germinated  with  renewed  vigor,  while  the  rage  of 
parties  surged  and  foamed  with  redoubled  violence,  in 
consequence  of  which  this  celebrated  Form  of  Con- 
cord obtained  the  sarcastic  title  of  Concordia  Diacors, 
— the  Concord  of  Discord. 

Of  this  remarkable  Symbolic  production,  Mosheim 
speaks  in  these  expressive  words  :  "  It  immediately 
met  with  a  warm  opposition  from  the  Reformed,  and 
also  from  all  those  who  were  either  secretly  attached 
to  their  doctrine,  or  who  at  least  were  desirous  of 
living  in  concord  and  communion  with  them,  from  a 
laudable  zeal  for  the  common  interests  of  the  Protestant 
cause.  Nor  was  their  opposition  at  all  unaccountable, 
since  they  plainly  perceived  that  this  P^rm  removed 
all  the  flattering  hopes  they  had  entertained  of  seeing 
13 


146  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

the  divisions  that  reigned  among  the  friends  of  re- 
ligious liberty  happily  healed,  and  entirely  excluded 
the  Reformed  from  the  communion  of  the  Lutheran 
Church.  Hence  they  were  filled  with  indignation 
against  the  authors  of  this  new  Confession  of  Faith, 
and  exposed  their  uncharitable  proceedings  in  writing 
full  of  spirit  and  vehemence.  The  Swiss  doctors,  with 
Hospinian  at  their  head,  the  Belgic  divines,  those  of 
the  Palatinate,  together  with  the  principalities  of  An- 
halt  and  Baden,  declared  war  against  the  Form  of 
Concord.  And  accordingly  from  this  period  the  Lu- 
theran, and  more  especially  the  Saxon  doctors,  were 
charged  with  the  disagreeable  task  of  defending  this 
new  creed  and  its  compilers  in  many  laborious  pro- 
ductions. Nor  were  the  followers  of  Zwingle  and 
Calvin  the  only  opposers  of  this  Form  of  Concord :  it 
found  adversaries  even  in  the  very  bosom  of  Lutheran- 
ism,  and  several  of  the  most  eminent  churches  of  that 
communion  rejected  it  with  such  firmness  and  resolu- 
tion, that  no  arguments  or  entreaties  could  engage 
them  to  admit  it  as  a  rule  gf  faith,  or  even  as  a  means 
of  instruction.  It  was  rejected  by  the  churches  of 
Hessia,  Pomerania,  Niiremberg,  Holstein,  Silesia,  Den- 
mark, Brunswick,  and  others.  Frederick  the  Second, 
King  of  Denmark,  as  soon  as  he  received  a  copy  of 
the  Form  in  question,  threw  it  into  the  fire,  and  saw  it 
consumed  before  his  eyes.  The  ill  fate  of  this  famous 
confession,  in  the  principalities  of  Lignitz  and  Brieg, 
is  no  less  matter  of  history." 

It  is  surprising  that  people,  claiming  to  be  Christians 
of  a  high  order  of  virtue  and  intelligence,  should,  by 


THE  LORD'S  SVPPEli.  I47 

re?ortii\2:  to  compulsory  means,  prosunic  to  impose 
their  peculiar  religious  views  upon  the  rest  of  man- 
kind, thinking-,  doubtless,  in  the  blindness  and  extrava- 
gance of  their  unholy  zeal,  to  do  God  a  signal  service. 
In  principle  at  least,  such  bigoted  and  unamiable  con- 
duct, often  aggravated  by  perfidy  of  ])ur])ose,  is  on  a 
par  with  the  cruel  and  bloody  deeds  of  "the  Holy 
Office,"  and  it,  ther(^fore,  behooves  us  sedulously  to 
guard  against  it,  lest  we  too  become  tainted  with  the 
intolerance  of  ultra-monlanism.  When  will  Chris- 
tians learn  that  strict  unanimity  of  dogmatic  views  is 
as  impossible  as  it  is  undesirable  and  pernicious  ?  God 
has  ordained  that  the  human  mind  should  differ  in  its 
individual  manifestations  of  powers  and  modes  of 
action,  as  well  as  in  the  idiosyncrasy  of  its  disposition 
and  its  passions.  Human  sentiments,  interrogated  by 
Revelation,  are  as  naturally  various  and  distinctively 
individual  as  the  song  or  the  color  of  the  bird;  the 
anatomy,  the  locomotion,  or  the  habits  of  the  different 
rapacious  or  gentle  beasts;  the  form  and  structure  of 
the  foliage  of  the  separate  families  or  even  of  the 
same  species  of  trees ;  or,  finally,  the  flavor  and  use  of 
the  manifold  fruit-productions  of  the  vegetable  king- 
dom. Unanimity  in  religious  views,  were  it  practicable, 
would  inevitably  result,  like  unalterable  creed-subscrip- 
tion, in  an  insurmountable  barrier  to  all  Christian  ad- 
vancement. I  am  willing,  therefore,  that  even  the  crass 
and  unbiblical  doctrine  of  the  Ileal  Presence  should  have 
free  scope  among  religionists,  if  opinions,  more  con- 
sonant with  evangelical  Christianity,  and  calculated  to 
secure  a  healthy  tone  of  sentiment,  cannot  be  consci- 


148  THE  DOCTRINE    OF 

entiously  entertained  ;  for  it  is  far  preferable  to  allow, 
and  even  to  foster,  diversity  in  dogmas,  than  to  aim  at 
universal  sameness,  and  thus  make  "the  waters  of  life" 
a  stagnant  pool,  "the  bread  of  heaven"  a  mouldy, 
worm-eaten  loaf.  If  professors  did  not  differ  in  their 
religious  convictions,  they  could  have  no  distinct  Chris- 
tian consciousness,  no  personal  amenability;  and  they 
would,  therefore,  appear  before  the  bar  of  God  as  a 
huge  multiple  monster,  animated  by  one  insensate,  de- 
generate soul,  worthless  on  earth,  and  unfit  for  heaven. 
When  our  Lord  and  the  Apostles  inculcate  unanimity 
of  religious  belief,  they  simply  mean  a  general  consent 
to  the  proposition  that  Christ  is  our  only  Saviour,  and 
that  we  must  all  look  to  him  or  his  way  of  salvation 
in  order  to  be  made  God-like  and  happy ;  or,  in  other 
words,  to  be  saved.  It  by  no  means  denotes  that  all 
Christ's  followers  must  contemplate  these  truths  in 
precisely  the  same  manner,  or  carry  them  out  in  an 
absolutely  uniform  and  literally  concordant  method. 
Ail  the  heterogeneous  views  which  are  now  professed 
by  the  multitudinous  sects  which  divide  and  disgrace 
Christendom,  under  the  assumed  sanction  of  human 
creeds,  could  just  as  well  be  expressed  or  cherished 
within  the  pale  of  a  common  brotherhood  of  Christians, 
provided  Christian  charity  and  forbearance  were,  as 
is  fit  they  should  be,  mutually  and  cordially  practiced. 
It  is  evident  that  mankind  cannot  be  of  one  mind  on 
the  all-important  but  variform  subject  of  religion,  from 
the  fact  attesting  the  existence  of  so  many  sects,  arrayed 
against  each  other  in  hostile  attitude,  or  dandling  in 
sham-love;  all  divided  by  diverse  and  often  conflicting 


THE   LORirS   S UPPER.  149 

creeds:  and  yet  men  spciik  of  existing  unanimity:  a 
thousand  sects  or  modes  of  religious  manifestations 
are  said  to  exist  and  flourish  in  the  various  regions  of 
the  globe,  and  there  must,  therefore,  be  a  thousand 
diverse  unanimities  among  the  religionists  of  the 
earth  !  Hence,  instead  of  any  longer  vaingloriously 
boasting  of  their  orthodox  creeds  or  immaculate  con- 
fessions, their  numerical  strength,  and  prosperous 
condition,  let  the  various  Christian  sects  who  have 
virtually  seceded  from  the  pale  of  the  Christian  Church 
—considered  as  Christ's  body— discard  their  inimical 
and  often  irreconcilable  Shibboleths,*  and,  humbly  re- 


*■  Sectarianism  is  a  powerful  obstacle  to  the  prompt  and  successful 
promulgation  of  the  Gospel  in  heathen  lands,  and  everywhere  cor- 
roborates the  Apostle's  assertion,  that  the  sectarists,  instead  of  dis- 
playing the  "  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ,"  are— according  to 
1  Corinthians,  iii.  \—carnnl,  and  mere  hahea  "in  Christ." 

"There  is  still,"  writes  C.  Edwards  Lester,  in  his  work,  "The 
Glory  and  Shame  of  England,"  "another  obstacle  to  the  spread  of 
Christianity,  not  only  in  India,  but  in  all  portions  of  the  pagan 
world,  of  which  it  gives  me  pain  to  speak.  I  refer  to  the  sectarian- 
.ism  of  the  missionaries;  and  I  speak  of  it  with  the  greatest  pain; 
for  I  do  not  love  to  blame  those  self-denying  men  who  have  been 
willing  to  exchange  the  friends,  the  literature,  the  happiness  of  an 
EngUrh  or  an  American  home,  with  all  the  sweet  charities  of  domes- 
tic life,  for  the  dark  abodes  of  idolatry,  etc. :  but  I  have  felt  this  mat- 
ter most  deeply,  and  I  must  allude  to  it. 

"There  is,  in  fact,  I  believe,  far  less  sectarianism  among  mission- 
aries than  among  those  who  send  them ;  and,  in  illustration  of  this, 
we  have  only  to  look  over  Great  Britain  and  America,  and  enumerate 
the  hundreds  of  sects,  and  listen  to  their  strifes,  controversies,  and 
bickerings.  Still,  the  missionaries  are  by  no  means  free  from  this 
unhallowed  spirit;  and  the  heathen  is  not  so  blind  but  that  he  can 
see  how  repugnant  to  the  precepts  of  Christ  is  the  very  existence  of 
13* 


150  TIJE  DOCTRINE   OF 

penting  of  their  sins  and  follies,  return  to  the  fold  of 
Christ — I  mean  of  course  the  sheep-io\6.  of  Christ,  not 


sects,  Christ  declared  that  a  kingdom  divided  against  itself  could 
not  stand. 

"  The  heathen  find  two  missionaries  among  them  from  England  or 
America,  to  teach  the  same  great  system  of  faith, — belief  in  the  same 
Saviour  and  preparation  for  the  same  heaven;  and  yet  the  Baptist 
spreads  the  Lord's  Table,  and  forbids  his  brother  to  come  to  the 
feast  !*  Perhaps  his  brother  has  come  from  a  distant  station,  and 
called  to  take  him  by  the  hand  and  rest  awhile  in  his  house.  They 
will  pray  together,  weep  together,  and  appear  to  love  each  other;  but 
they  cannot  sit  together  at  the  great  Christian  Feast.  Will  the  Hin- 
doo call  this  caste  f  or  what  ? 

*'A  fact  was  related  to  me  by  a  missionary  who  had  been  several 
years  in  India,  which  is  in  point.  I  had,  said  he,  baptized,  by 
sprinkling,  a  native  in  India,  and  he  seemed  to  understand  the  na- 
ture and  feel  the  power  of  Christianity.  Being  obliged  to  leave  my 
station  for  awhile,  a  Baptist  brother,  at  my  request,  came  to  take 
charge  of  my  school  during  my  absence.  On  a  certain  occasion  he 
was  conversing  with  the  native  to  whom  I  alluded  on  the  subject  of 
baptism.  Ascertaining  that  I  had  performed  that  rite  upon  him,  the 
Baptist  entered  into  an  argument  to  convince  him  that  he  had  not 
been  baptized;  that,  whatever  T  might  have  said,  he  could  be  sure 
that  he  had  not  been  baptized;  and  that,  if  he  would  be  saved,  he 
must  be  immersed.  The  poor  heathen  shook  his  head,  saying, 
*Ab !  Boodah  is  a  better  God!'  and  returned  to  the  embrace  of 
his  idols.  I  saw  him  after  this,  and  told  him  that  I  would  im- 
merse him  if  he  chose ;  for  I  considered  the  form  of  baptism  of 
little  consequence.  But  he  replied,  *I  can't  tell  who  speaks  the 
most  wisely ;  though  I  am  certain  you  cannot  both  have  the  same 
religion.' 

"  It  is  well  known  that  the  Baptist  Church  in  America,  after  many 
bitter  complaints,  has  seceded  from  the  American  Bible  Society,  be- 

*  This  is  a  good  deal  like  refusing  to  exchange  pulpits  or  to  commune 
with  Christians  who  entertain  no  sympathy  for  the  dogma  of  the  Real 
Presence. — G. 


nil':  Lonirs  surrKii.  isi 

the  ?roZ/-fold  of  ''Holy  Motbcr  Cbiircb,"— and  doing 
towards  each  other  as  they  wish  others  should  do  to- 
wards them,  live  in  the  unity  of  the  spirit  and  the 
bonds  of  peace,  through  Jesus  Christ,  each  honestly 
founding  his  faith  upon  the  evidence  of  a  personal 
Scripture  research,  and  so  governing  his  walk  and  con- 
versation as  to  be  both  recognized  and  respected  by 
all  sincere  followers  of  Christ  as  a  worthy  member  of 
the  same  "  holy  universal  Church."  If  this  is  not  done, 
and  done  speedily  too,  Romanism  will  inflict  a  grave 
and  fatal  injury  upon  the  Protestant  Church,  as  its 
Jesuitic  chicanery  and  intrigues  are  ever,  with  hypo- 
critical fawning,  and  guise  of  fraternal  sympathy  and 
regard,  doing  all  it  is  possible  for  self-interested  cun- 
ning to  do  to  sow  the  baneful  seeds  of  discontent  in 
the  minds  of  unsuspecting  Protestants,  too  often  vacil- 
lating and  unsatisfied  in  their  miserable,  disintegrated 
state  of  a  deplorable  sectism,  and  to  create  a  morbid 
longing  for  a  return  to  the  ample,  loving  bosom  of 
Romanism.     The  option  is  between  Christ  and  Belial, 

cause  they  would  not  print  a  new  edition  of  the  Bible,  and  change 
the  phraseology  of  those  parts  which  speak  of  baptism ! 

"  The  Established  Church  have  good  bishops  and  ministers  at  their 
missionary  stations,  but  they  deny  the  validity  of  all  other  ordina- 
tions. They  tell  the  heathen  that  the  Scotch  or  the  American  Pres- 
byterian or  Baptist  missionary  is  no  minister  ;  no  ambassador  of 
Christ;  has  no  right  to  administer  the  sacred  ordinances  of  the 
Church.  It  makes  the  heart  sick  to  contemplate  these  things.  The 
pagan  looks  on,  and  more  firmly  adheres  to  his  idols." 

Scores  of  iimilar  examples  of  a  wicked  and  hateful  sectism  might 
readily  be  adduced,  but,  for  the  present,  at  least,  the  foregoing  in- 
cidents may  suffice. 


152  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

what  say  you?  Will  you  be  one  in  Christ,  tolerating, 
in  the  spirit  of  love  and  magnanimity,  diversities  of 
views,  while  all  cleave  to  Christ,  as  their  only  hope, 
and  all  strive  to  excel  each  other  in  offices  of  love 
and  good  works,  thus  verifying  and  sanctifying  your 
title  to  the  Christian  name, — and  stand?  or  continue 
divided,  Siud  fall,  never  again  tori^e?  For  a  divided, 
social  body  cannot  prosper  or  endure,  as  is  plain 
from  our  Lord's  teaching,  Matthew,  xii.  25:  "Every 
kingdom  divided  against  itself  is  brought  to  desola- 
tion ;  and  every  city  or  house  divided  against  itself 
shall  not  stand." 

The  Apostles  of  our  Lord  were  presumptively  all 
Christians — Judas  I  have  no  authority  to  judge — and 
followers  of  the  Redeemer ;  but  how  differently  were 
their  opinions  of  Christianity  expressed,  and  how  di- 
verse, therefore,  must  have  been  their  modes  of  faith  ! 
The  Christology  of  Paul  and  John  is,  by  no  means, 
the  same,  while  again  it  is  strikingly  different  from 
that  of  Peter  and  James.  The  latter  exhibited  Chris- 
tianity from  a  purely  practical  standpoint ;  the  former 
indulge  in  the  theological  contemplations  common 
to  the  Oriental  or  Gnostic  philosophy.  Where  the 
Apostles  differ  in  their  method  of  teaching  the  Gospel 
there  is  room  for  speculation  and  the  use  of  logic,  but 
where,  on  the  contrary,  they  agree,  our  faith  will  be 
fixed  and  positive,  and  our  obedience  prompt  and  cer- 
tain. Thus  there  is  unity  in  diversity,  and  even  a 
Judas  may  have  his  name  in  the  Church  record.  For, 
is  he  bad,  where  should  he  go  to  become  good?  is  he 
not  already  in  the  Church  ?     And  is  he  good,  he  will 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  153 

noitluT  need  nor  desire  to  1^:0  where  he  cannot  l)e  "finy 
better.* 

s-  "  Truth,"  writes  D'Aubign6,  "may  be  compared  to  the  light  of 
the  sun.  The  light  comes  from  heaven  colorless,  and  ever  the  same  ; 
and  yet  it  takes  different  hues  on  earth,  varying  according  to  the  ob- 
jects on  which  it  falls.  How  dull  would  be  this  visible  creation  if  all 
its  boundless  variety  of  shape  and  color  were  to  give  place  to  an 
unbroken  uniformity  !  And  may  we  not  add,  how  melancholy  would 
be  its  aspect  if  all  created  beings  did  but  compose  a  solitary  and  vast 
ttniti/  ! 

"  The  unity  which  comes  from  Heaven  doubtless  has  its  place,  but 
the  diversity  of  human  nature  has  its  proper  place  also.  In  religion 
we  must  neither  leave  out  God  nor  man.  Without  unity,  in  Christian 
]iri)tciph,  your  religion  cannot  be  of  God;  without  diversity,  it  can- 
not be  the  religion  of  man.  And  it  ought  to  be  of  both.  Would  you 
banish  from  creation  a  law  that  its  Divine  author  has  imposed  upon 
it,  namely,  that  of  boundless  diversity  ?  *  Things  without  life  giving 
sound,'  said  Paul,  *  whether  pipe  or  harp,  except  they  give  a  dts- 
tinctiou  in  the  sounds,  how  shall  it  he  known  what  is  piped  or  harped  ?' 
1  Corinthians,  xiv.  7.  In  religion  there  is  a  diversity,  the  result  of 
distinction  of  individuality,  and  which,  by  consequence,  must  subsist 
oven  in  heaven,"  etc. 

But  it  is  Robinson,  the  worthy  pastor  of  the  emigrants  of  the  May- 
Flower,  and  distinguished  founder  of  the  Iiulcpendenta,  whose  views 
'  eminently  express  the  true  Scripture  standpoint  of  a  normal  Chris- 
tian society  or  church.  I  quote  from  the  remarks  of  the  editor  of  the 
Biblical  Repository  and  Quarterly  Observer  in  the  April  number  of 
1835  :  "  From  the  'Apology'  of  Robinson,  it  appears  that  in  regard 
to  the  rule  of  faith,  they — the  Independents — entirely  disclaimed 
human  authority,  and  distinctly  maintained  the  right  of  every  man 
to  judge  of  the  sense  of  the  Scriptures  for  himself,  of  trying  doctrines 
by  them,  and  of  worshiping  according  to  his  apprehension  of  them. 
In  July,  1020,  Robinson  preached  a  sermon  which  'breathed  a  noble 
spirit  of  Christian  liberty.'  'I  charge  you,'  said  he  to  the  parting 
congregation,  'before  God  and  his  blessed  angels,  that  you  follow 
me  no  further  than  you  have  seen  me  follow  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
I  am  very  confident  that  the  Lord  has  more  truth  to  break  forth  out 


154  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

I  shall  now  proceed  to  lay  before  the  reader  the 
important  lessons  which  St.  Paul' imparts  on  this 
interesting  and  momentous  theme,  in  1  Corinthians, 
i.  10-13,  iii.  3-11  ;  and  then,  commending*  the  subject 
of  this  article  to  the  serious  and  prayerful  attention  of 
the  Christian  public,  leave  it  to  its  doom,  guarded  sa- 
credly and  safely  in  the  hands  of  God.  The  Apostle 
thus  pithily  expresses  himself,  in  the  pathetic  language 
of  grief  and  expostulation  :  "  Now  I  beseech  you,  breth- 
ren, by  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  ye  all 
speak  the  same  thing,  and  that  there  be  no  divisions 
among  you  ;  but  that  ye  be  perfectly  joined  together 
in  the  same  mind  and  in  the  same  judgment.  For  it 
hath  been  declared  unto  me  of  you,  my  brethren,  by 
them  which  are  of  the  house  of  Chloe,  that  there  are 
contentions  among  you.  Now  this  I  say,  that  every 
one  of  you  saith,  I  am  of  Paul;  and  I  of  Apollos; 
and  I  of  Cephas  ;  and  I  of  Christ.  Is  Christ  divided  ? 
was  Paul  crucified  for  you  ?  or  were  ye  baptized  in  the 
name  of  Paul  ?"  Turning  to  the  other  passage,  we  find 
this  eminent  servant  of  Christ  discoursing  in  this  lucid 
and  impressive  manner  of  solemn  and  stern  rebuke  : 
"  Ye  are  yet  carnal :  for  whereas  there  is  among  you  en- 
vying, and  strife,  and  divisions,  are  ye  not  carnal,  and 
walk  as  men  (men  of  the  world)  ?  For  while  one  saith, 
I  am  of  Paul ;  and  another,  I  am  of  Apollos,  are  ye  not 
carnal  ?      Who  then  is  Paul,  and  who  is  Apollos,  but 

of  his  holy  word.  I  beseech  you  remember  it  as  an  article  of  your 
church  covenant,  that  you  be  ready  to  receive  whatever  truth  shall 
be  made  known  to  you  from  the  written  word  of  God.' " 


THE  LORD'S  surrim.  155 

ministers  by  ichom  ye  believed,  even  as  the  Lord  gave 
to  every  man  ?  I  have  planted,  A  polios  watered  ;  but 
God  gave  the  increase.  So  then  neither  is  he  that 
planteth  anything,  neither  he  that  watereth,  but  God 
that  giveth  the  increase.  Now  he  that  planteth  and 
be  that  watereth  are  one  :  and  every  man  shall  receive 
his  own  reward  according  to  his  own  labor.  For  we 
are  laborers  together  with  God:  ye  are  God's  hus- 
bandry, ye  are  God's  building.  According  to  the 
grace  of  God  which  is  given  unto  me,  as  a  wise  master- 
builder,  I  have  laid  the  foundation,  and  another  build- 
eth  thereon.  But  let  every  man  take  heed  how  he 
buildeth  thereupon.  For  other  foundation  can  no  man 
lav  than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ,"  etc. 


156  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 


SIHiOTIOlNr     2C. 

S03IE  OF  THE  DOGMAS  OF  THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH 
HA  VE  FALLEN  INTO  DESUETUDE:  A  FACT  WHICH  EN- 
COURAGES THE  HOPE  THAT  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE 
REAL  PRESENCE  MAY,  EVENTUALLY,  MEET  WITH  A 
SIMILAR  FATE ;  BUT  IN  THE  MEANWHILE,  THE  VEN- 
ERABLE PARENT  OF  PROTESTANTISM  MAY  IN  SOME 
MEASURE  JUSTLY  CLAIM  SUPERIORITY  OF  PRAC- 
TICE 0  VER  THEOR  Y. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Immersion,  in  Theory,  is  a  Lutheran  Mode  of  Baptism  ;  in  Practice, 
it  is  not  observed. 

In  a  concise  treatise  appended  to  the  Smaller  Cate- 
chism, and  embodied  among  the  symbols  of  faith,  in 
the  Book  of  Concord,  entitled  ''Das  Taiifbuechlein," 
or  the  Baptismal  Formulary,  and  addressed  by  Luther 
"To  all  Christian  Readers,"  the  Reformer  gives  a 
minute  account  of  the  liturgic  services  to  be  observed 
at  the  baptism  of  a  child,  and  carefully  points  out  the 
proper  mode  of  conducting  the  solemn  administration 
of  this  sacred  and  important  rite. 

A  number  of  striking  ceremonies  prescribed  in  this 
formulary — derived  from  the  devices  of  a  hoary  and 
superstitious  age, — I  forbear  to  notice  further  than  to 


Tin:  Loiijrs  SL'PJ' /':/!.  if^^ 

remark  that,  at  present,  they  arc  considered,  in  the 
words  of  En<^land's  immortal  dramatist,  "  more  hon- 
ored in  the  breach  than  in  the  observance." 

After  a  repetition  of  various  extraordinary  liturgical 
observances — tau<2:ht  in  this  formulary,  and  formerly  ad- 
hered to  with  scrupulous  exactness — we  at  length  arrive 
at  that  stage  in  the  baptismal  solemnities  when  the  im- 
pressive sacramental  act  is  to  be  consummated,  and 
the  officiating  priest  to  take  the  child  and  immerse  it 
in  the  water  of  the  Lavacrum  or  font,  saying,  as  he 
discharges  this  part  of  his  sacred  functions,  "  I  bap- 
tize thee  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  etc. 

This  mode  of  baptism  Luther  still  seems  to  have 
approved,  seven  years  after  the  presentation  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession  to  the  Emperor  Charles  Y.,  at 
the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  in  1530,  in  his  Schmalkald  Ar- 
ticles, page  308,  in  quoting — while  treating  of  baptism 
— the  words  in  Ephesians,  v.  26  :  "That  he — Christ — 
might  sanctify  and  cleanse  it — the  Church — with  the 
leashing  of  water  by  the  word."  This  view  of  baptism, 
I  may  state,  is  evidently  but  a  repetition  of  the  doc- 
trine of  immersion,  still  practiced  in  the  earlier  period 
of  the  Reformation,  and  doubtless  referred  to  in  the 
Smaller  Catechism,  where,  in  the  third  paragraph  on 
baptism,  in  proof  of  what  he  is  saying,  Luther  calls  at- 
tention to  the  passage  in  Titus,  iii.  5,  where  the  doctrine 
is  advanced  that  we  are  saved  "by  the  washing  of  regen- 
eration, and  the  renewing  of  the  Iloly  Ghost."  I  do  not 
wish,  however,  to  be  understood  to  assert  that  Luther 
inculcated  baptism  bu  Immersion  onty,  but  what  I 
U 


158  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

design  especially  to  impress  upon  the  reader's  attention 
is,  that  the  ReTornier  devotes  a  separate  treatise  to 
this  mode  of  baptism,  wlrile  in  other  parts  of  his  Con- 
fessional Works  he  only  speaks  of  baptism  generally, 
without  allusion  to  any  specific  mode  after  which  it 
should  be  administered,  with  the  single  exception,  as 
far  as  I  am  aware,  of  a  passage  in  his  Larger  Cate- 
chism, page  447,  where  he  speaks  of  the  doubts  of 
cavilers  as  to  the  efficacy  of  the  small  quantity  of  water 
employed  in  baptism,  "  Saying,  how  can  a  handful  of 
icater  do  any  good  to  the  soul  ?"  In  short,  there  seems 
to  be  no  doubt  that,  in  the  era  of  the  Reformation,  bap- 
tism by  immersion  was  the  common  mode,  and  that 
the  exception  to  this  practice  was  comparatively  rare, 
and  resorted  to  only  in  cases  of  emergency.* 

*  In  the  American  edition  of  the  New  Edinburgh  Eneyclopjedia, 
Tol.  iii.,  part  ii.,  page  236,  appears  an  article  on  Baptism,  by  Rev- 
erend James  Nicol,  in  which  the  following  interesting  facts  commend 
themselves  to  our  earnest  and  respectful  attention:  "It  is  impossi- 
ble to  mark  the  precise  period  when  sprinkling  was  introduced.  It 
is  probable,  however,  that  it  was  invented  in  Africa  in  the  second 
century,  in  favor  of  clinics.  But  it  was  so  far  from  being  approved 
by  the  church  in  general,  that  the  Africans  themselves  did  not 
account  it  valid.  The  first  law  for  sprinkling  was  obtained  in  the 
following  manner.  Pope  Stephen  III.,  being  driven  from  Rome  by 
Astulphus,  King  of  the  Lombards,  in  753,  fled  to  Pepin,  who,  a 
short  time  before,  had  usurped  the  crown  of  France.  Whilst  he  re- 
mained there,  the  Monks  of  Cressy,  in  Brittany,  consulted  him, 
whether,  in  a  case  of  necessity,  baptism,  performed  by  pouring  water 
on  the  head  of  the  infant,  would  be  lawful.  Stephen  replied  that  it 
would.  But  though  the  truth  of  this  fact  should  be  allowed,  which 
some  Catholics  deny,  yet  pouring  or  sprinkling  was  only  admitted 
in  cases  of  necessity.  It  was  not  till  1311  that  the  legislature,  in  a 
council  held  at  Ravenna,  declared  immersion  or  sprinkling  to  be  indif- 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  150 

Such  beino^  the  case,  why  is  this  Baptismal  Formu- 
lary, teaching  immersion  witii  so  much  detail  and  ri^nd 
precision,  to  be  subscribed  bythe  Evangelical  Lutheran 
ministers  of  the  Symbolic  School,  or  required  to  be 
treated  as  an  article  of  faith,  if  it  is  not  to  be  carried 


ferent.  In  this  country — Great  Britain,  however,  sprinkling  was 
never  practiced,  in  ordinary  cases,  till  after  the  Ilcformation  ;  and  in 
England,  even  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  trine  immersion,  dipping 
first  the  right  side,  secondly,  the  left  aide,  and  last,  the  face  of  the 
infant,  was  commonly  observed.  But  during  the  persecution  of 
Mary,  many  persons,  most  of  whom  were  Scotsmen,  fled  from  Eng- 
land to  Geneva,  and  there  greedily  imbibed  the  opinions  of  that 
church.  In  1556,  a  book  was  published  at  that  place,  containing 
*  The  form  of  prayers  and  ministration  of  the  sacraments,  approved 
by  the  famous  and  godly  learned  man,  John  Calvin,  in  which  the 
administrator  is  enjoined  to  take  water  in  his  hand  and  lay  it  upon 
the  child's  forehead.'  These  Scottish  exiles,  who  had  renounced  the 
authority  of  the  Pope,  implicitly  acknowledged  the  authority  of  Cal- 
vin ;  and,  returning  to  their  own  country,  with  Knox  at  their  head,  in 
1559,  established  sprinkling  in  Scotland.  From  Scotland  this  practice 
made  its  way  into  England  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  ;  but  was  not  au- 
thorized by  the  established  church.  In  the  Assembly  of  Divines,  held 
at  Westminster,  in  1643,  it  was  keenly  debated  whether  immersion  or 
sprinkling  should  be  adopted  ;  twenty-five  voted  for  sprinkling,  and 
twenty-four  for  immersion  ;  and  even  this  small  majority  was  obtained 
at  the  earnest  request  of  Doctor  Lightfoot,  who  had  acquired  great  in- 
fluence in  that  assembly.  Sprinkling  is  therefore  the  general  practice 
of  this  country  since  1643.  Many  Christians,  however,  especially  the 
Baptists,  reject  it.  The  Greek  Church  universally  adhere  to  immer- 
sion." 

Comparing  these  very  significant  facts  with  Luther's  Immersion 
Formulary,  noticed  in  the  text,  and  his  almost  total  silence  on  other 
modes  of  baptism,  the  conclusion  seems  warranted  that  immersion 
was  the  ordinary  or  prevalent  form,  in  which  the  sacrament  of  bap- 
tism was  administered  in  Germany  during  the  period,  at  least,  of  the 
Lutheran  Reformation. 


160  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

out  in  practice  ?  The  doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence, 
also  subscribed,  is  held  to  be  inviolable,  both  in  theory 
and  in  practice,  and  made  a  cardinal  or  central  dogma  of 
faith,  while  the  doctrine  of  sacramental  immersion  is 
coolly  and  habitually  ignored.  What  daring  foe  has 
presumed  to  make  this  breach  in  the  pristine  faith  of 
Lutheranism  ?  Besides,  what  good  reason  can  be 
assigned,  that  Luther's  opinion,  that  the  bread  and 
wine  in  the- Lord's  Supper  are  the  real,  humanlike 
body  and  blood  of  our  Lord,  should  be  held  in  greater 
esteem  and  veneration  than  his  injunction  to  the  min- 
istering priest  in  "  the  Taufbuechlein," — the  Baptismal 
Formulary, — "To  take  the  child  and  immerse  it  in  the 
water"?  Such  discrimination  is  tantamount  to  hon- 
oring Luther's  authority  in  the  one  Sacrament,  and 
treating  it  with  disrespect  and  neglect  in  the  other  ; 
and  yet  all  the  dogmas  in  the  Book  of  Concord,  both 
great  and  small,  are  to  be  subscribed,  and,  of  course, 
it  should  seem,  rigidly  carried  out !  This,  I  conceive, 
is  evidence  of  great  inconsistency,  yet  it  encourages 
the  hope  that  faith  in  the  Eeal  Presence  may  eventually 
be  recognized  only  in  history.* 


*  That  the  Anabaptists  found  it  expedient  to  repeat  the  rite  of  bap- 
tism upon  those  who  came  over  to  their  communion,  is,  I  presume, 
no  proof  that  only  or  mainly  non-immersion  modes  of  baptism  were 
in  vogue  in  the  age  of  the  Reformation,  but  rather  denotive  of  the  fact 
that  the  first  baptism  had  been  administered  to  infants  instead  of 
adults. 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  161 


C  n  A  P  T  E  II    1 1. 

Auricular  Confession  appears  among  the  Articles  of  Faith  in  the 
Book  of  Concord,  but  is,  at  least  in  this  Country,  not  observed. 

As  an  article  of  faith,  auricular  confession  is  not 
practiced  by  any  of  the  different  branches  of  the  Lu- 
theran Church  in  this  country,  not  even  by  the  Mis- 
sourians, — at  least  not  in  their  aggregate  capacity; 
though,  to  judge  from  former  statements  in  this  Work, 
they  seem  to  oscillate  somewhat  inauspiciously  between 
Wittenberg  and  Rome,  and  to  be  most  likely,  there- 
fore, to  give  it  a  prominent  place  in  their  liturgic 
observances. 

Prior  to  the  union  of  the  Protestant  Churches  in 
Prussia,  auricular  confession  was  a  chief  part  of  the 
ritual  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  Instead  of  it,  there 
has  been  introduced  in  this  country  the  "Order  of 
Service,  Preparatory  to  the  Lord's  Supper  " :  a  change 
in  this  dogma  similar  to  that  now  observed  in  the 
Prussian  empire.  Those,  therefore,  who  have  hereto- 
fore reproached  the  Lutheran  Church  in  the  United 
States  with  devotion  to  this  pnpal  relic  of  a  past  age, 
may  hence  be  supposed  to  be  undeceived. 

According  to  the  eleventh  article  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  private  absolution,  or,  in  other  words,  auri- 
cular confession,  is  to  be  retained  in  the  liturgic  service 
of  the  Lutheran  Church.  Li  Schott's  "  Unaltered 
Augsburg  Confession,"  we  read  that  "private  abso- 
14* 


Ig2  ^'^^  DOCTRINE   OF 

lution  ought  to  be  retained  in  the  churches,  and  not 
be  rejected  entirely."  This  is  not  at  all,  I  conceive,  a 
correct  sta^ment ;  for  the  Augsburg  Confession  does 
not  say  a  word  about  not  "  entirely  rejecting^^  private 
absolution,  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  requires  that  it 
should  be  retained,  and  not  suffered  to  fallinto  disuse. 
The  Latin  copy  of  this  Confession,  by  Miiller,  simply 
says  :  "  Quod  absolutio  privata  in  ecclesiis  retinenda 
sit," — that  is,  that  private  confession  should  be  retained 
in  the  churches,  without  the  admonition  not  to  reject 
or  suffer  it  to  fall  into  disuse,  and  also  without  Schott's 
addition,  that  it  should  be  retained,  "and  not  rejected 
entirely." 

Evidently  Luther  wished  auricular  confession  to  be 
retained  in  the  Church,  as  one  of  its  most  important 
and  useful  articles  of  faith.  Thus,  in  the  Schmal- 
kald  Articles,  page  309,  he  expresses  himself  in  the 
following  emphatic  language  :  "As  absolution,  or  the 
pardoning  power  of  the  keys,  is  an  important  means 
of  comforting  and  tranquillizing  sin-stricken  and  dis- 
quieted souls,  and  is,  besides,  one  of  Christ's  institu- 
tions, it  is  to  be  wished  that  confession  or  absolution 
might  by  no  means  be  suffered  to  fall  into  disuse  in 
the  Church,  especially  on  account  of  bruised  and  ten- 
der consciences,  as  also  on  account  of  the  ignorant 
youths,  in  order  that  they  may  be  examined  and 
instructed  in  the  doctrines  and  duties  of  the  Christian 
religion."*  The  Confessors  teach  on  this  subject,  how- 


*  Among  the  religious  dogmas  in  the  Book  of  Concord,  auricular 
confession  bears  the  rank  and  significance  of  a  sacrament.     In  this 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  1G3 

ever,  that  "  it  is  not  iioccssaiy,  in  private  or  anricular 
confession,  to  enumerate  all  our  sins  or  misdeeds, 
inasmuch  as  such  an  attempt  would  be,  at  any  rate, 
impossible,  Psalm  xix.  12:  'Who  can  understand  his 
errors  ?     Cleanse  thou  me  from  Hecrct  faults.'  " 

The  German  Evtinj^elical  Lutheran  Ministerium  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Adjacent  States,  has  very  materially 
modified  and  improved  the  dogma  of  auricular  confes- 
sion, both  in  regard  to  its  form  and  import,  and  given 
it  an  air  and  expression  more  adapted  to  the  advanced 
intelligence  and  liberal  Christian  views  of  the  present 
age.  The  "General  Synod  of  the  Evangelical  Lu- 
theran Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,"  I 
may  remark,  in  passing,  has  long  since  impressed  upon 
this  institution  the  more  marked  insignia  of  an  evan- 
gelical character. 

In  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  doctrine  of  the  bodily 
presence  of  Christ  in,  with,  and  under  the  sacramental 
bread  and  wine,  is  taught,  believed,  and — as  far  as 
feasible — carried  out:  this  is  consistency,  and -as  such, 
at  least,  praiseworthy ;  but  the  question  recurs.  Why 
are  Luther  and  his  coadjutors  in  the  faith  implicitly 
obeyed  in  one  thing  and  not  in  another  ?  If  private 
confession  has  become  obsolete,  and  is  thus  no  longer 

light  Luther  clearly  regarded  it,  without,  however,  an  express  do- 
claration  to  that  effect.  In  his  opinion,  it  is  inseparably  connected 
with  the  office  of  the  keys,  and,  therefore,  to  bo  retained  and  held 
sacred.  But  it  is  Melanchthon  who  indubitably  established  this  point, 
in  the  Apologj'  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  page  "193,  where  he  thus 
writes  of  this  institution  :  **  Hence  the  true  sacraments  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  are  Baptism,  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  Absolution." 


1(54  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

an  element  in  Christian  discipline  or  appreciated  as  a 
means  of  grace,  let  it  be  erased  from  the  list  of  the 
Church's  confessions  of  faith;  and,  above  all,  let  sub- 
scription to  it  cease,  and  the  reputation  and  efiiciency 
of  the  Church  be  no  longer  impaired  by  the  unjust 
imputation  of  Romish  practices. 

It  should  be  observed  that  confession  of  sin,  as  it  is 
now  recognized  and  practiced,  is  no  longer  private  but 
public ;  not  in  the  confessional  and  in  the  saintly  ears 
of  a  priest  or  ''Father  Confessor,"  but  in  the  house  of 
God,  and  to  God,  agreeably  to  the  "  Order  of  Service, 
Preparatory  to  the  Lord's  Supper,"  mentioned  above, 
embodied  in  the  Hymn  Book  of  the  "Evangelical  Lu- 
theran Ministerium  of  the  State  of  New  York,"  pub- 
lished in  1834.  The  pastor,  now  happily  in  the  place 
of  the  priest,  has  nothing  further  to  do  than — after  a 
public  and  general  confession  of  sin  by  the  congrega- 
tion— to  announce  the  gracious  purpose  of  God,  for 
Christ's  sake,  to  forgive  the  sins  of  all  those  \vho  are 
truh''  penitent,  and  resolved  henceforth  to  lead  a  sober, 
righteous,  and  godly  life,  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord. 

In  the  "  Church  Book"  of  the  Ministerium  of  Penn- 
sylvania it  is  stated,  under  the  head  of  Confession, 
"  That  we  receive  absolution  or  forgiveness  of  sin 
through  the  pastor  as  of  God  himself,"  and  this  state- 
ment is  strictly  Lutheran,  or  in  exact  conformity  with 
the  Reformer's  teaching  upon  this  subject,  in  the 
Smaller  Catechism;  but  in  my  humble  opinion,  it  ever 
behooves  frail  humanity  to  bear  in  mind  that  nothing 
that  they  can  do  is  "as  of  God  himself,"  and  that. 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  1G5 

therefore,  God  cannot  have  vouchsafed  to  it  such  plenary 
authority.  Not  even  in  the  name  of  God  should  the 
office  of  the  keys  be  executed,  but  simply  and  exclu- 
sively in  virtue  of  the  teachings  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 
The  assumption  to  absolve  or  forgive  sins  "like  God 
himself,"  is  based  upon  the  power  or  office  of  the  keys, 
Matthew,  xvi.  19;  John,  xx.  23.  Now^  to  whom  w^as 
the  power  or  office  of  the  keys  intrusted  ?  I  answer, 
To  the  Apostles,  and  not  to  Christian  ministers;  for 
these  are  neither  Apostles  nor  the  successors  of  the 
Apostles.  The  distinction  between  them  is  clear  and 
decisive.  In  Ephesians,  iv.  11,  we  read:  "And  he 
gave  some  apostles,  and  some  pastors  and  teachers," 
etc.  Christian  ministers  unite  in  their  functions  the 
offices  of  pastor  and  teacher,  and,  hence,  they  are  min- 
isters and  not  Apostles.  Theirendowments,  too,  are  very 
different  from  those  of  the  Apostles  :  these  ministers  of 
Christ  were  inspired  and  wrought  miracles.  Is  the  min- 
ister gifted  with  such  endowments  ?  If  he  is,  let  him  show 
that  he  is  inspired  by  proving  himself  to  be  infallible. 
Can  he  perform  miracles,  then  let  him  "raise  the  dead  or 
cast  out  devils,"  etc.,  Matthew,  x.  8,  and  thus  convince 
the  world  that  he  possesses  the  extraordinary  powder 
of  the  Apostles,  or  that  his  pretension  to  the  exercise 
of  the  office  of  the  keys  is  not  a  sham.  Destitute  of 
the  supernatural  gifts  of  the  Apostles,  the  minister 
cannot  forgive  sins  "like  God  himself."  In  short,  the 
minister  is  neither  an  Apostle,  nor  divinely  gifted  like 
an  Apostle,  and  beside  this,  the  power  or  office  of  the 
keys  ceased  forever  when  the  apostolic  mission  itself 
ceased.    I  repeat,  that  they  who  claim  to  represent  the 


1G6  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

Apostles  in  the  administration  of  the  office  of  the  keys 
must  demonstrate  their  apostolic  authority  by  apostolic 
deeds  like  the  following,  to  be  entitled  to  credence  : 
Matthew,  x.  5-8 ;  Mark,  vi.  13  ;  Acts,  ii.  43  ;  iii.  7  ;  v. 
12;  ix.  34-41,  etc. 

I  shall  here  give  a  synopsis  of  the  manner  in  which 
auricular  confession  is  to  be  conducted,  according  to 
Luther's  Smaller  Catechism,  as  it  appears  in  the  Book 
of  Concord,  to  enable  the  reader  to  compare  it  with 
the  present  form  which  the  confession  of  sin  has  as- 
sumed. In  the  first  place,  the  penitent  is  directed  to 
address  himself  to  the  priest  or  ''  Father  Confessor"; 
secondly,  deferentially  to  request  him  to  hear  his  con- 
fession; and  thirdly,  humbly  to  beseech  him  to  absolve 
him  from  his  sins.  The  priest  bids  him  to  proceed 
in  the  confession,  and  the  penitent  begins  to  give  an 
account  of  his  diverse  relations  and  conditions  in  life  ; 
of  his  manifold  and  grievous  sins,  both  in  respect  to 
the  omission  of  duty  and  the  commission  of  evil ; 
adding  that  he  is  sorry  on  account  of  his  shortcom- 
ings and  transgressions,  and  therefore  promises  to 
amend  his  sinful  ways  ;  humbly  asking,  in  conclusion, 
the  forgiveness  of  his  sins,  or,  in  other  words,  sacra- 
mental absolution.  To  this  confession  of  sin  and 
expression  of  deep  humility  the  priest  responds  :  "Grod 
be  merciful  to  thee,  and  strengthen  and  confirm  thee  in 
the  faith,  amen."  In  addition  to  this  part  of  his  func- 
tion, the  priest  is  thus  to  interrogate  the  penitent: 
"Dost  thou  indeed  believe  that  my  forgiveness  is 
the  same  as  Grod's  forgiveness  ?"  "  Yes,  reverend 
father,"  responds  the  penitent,  "I  do  ;"  and  the  priest, 


THE  LORirS  SUPFEIL  107 

ill  R'ply  to  this  assurance,  again  says:  "As  thou 
believest,  so  be  it  unto  thee  ;  I  absolve  thee  of  thy 
sins  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  amen.     Go  in  peace  I"* 

I  conclude  by  observing  that  the  desuetude  into 
which  auricular  confession  has  fallen  in  the  Lutheran 
Church  is  ominous  of  the  fate  of  all  dogmas  not  rest- 
ing upon  a  Scripture  basis:  "Every  plant,"  says  the 
Saviour,  "  which  my  heavenly  Father  hath  not  planted, 
shall  be  rooted  up":  Matthew,  xv.  13. 


CHAPTER    III. 

The   Mass,  or  the   Roman    Catholic   Ritual   Service   of  the  Lord's 
Supper. 

To  judge  from  some  remarks  in  the  Apology  of 
the  Augsburg  Confession,  ^Melanchthon  appeared  not 
unfavorably  inclined  to  the  idea  that  the  word  Mass 
is  derived  from  the  elliptic  sentence,  "Ite,  missa  est," 
— go,  your  sin  is  forgiven.    It  is,  in  short,  the  Romish 

*  Rev.  S.  I.  Mahoney,  late  a  Capuchin  friar  in  the  convent  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception  at  Rome,  expresses  himself  in  this  wise,  in 
his  work  entitled  "  Six  Years  in  the  Monasteries  of  Italy,  and  Two 
Years  in  the  Islands  of  the  Mediterranean  and  in  Asia  Minor" :  "On 
auricular  confession  is  founded  the  vulgar  belief  of  the  great  power 
of  priests.  It  is  natural  for  the  human  mind  to  regard  with  a  degree 
of  veneration  the  person  of  one  who,  it  is  led  to  think,  represents  the 
person  of  Jesus  Christ  in  his  ministerial  office,  and  who  has  the  fac- 
ulty of  forgiving  or  retaining  the  sius  of  the  people,"  etc. 


168  TJ^E  DOCTRINE   OF 

ritual  observauce  in  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  and,  as  such,  is  a  sad  and  disgusting  carica- 
ture of  the  Gospel  institution  bearing  this  venerable 
name.  The  bread  alone  is  administered  to  the  com- 
municant, but  not  before  it  has  been  converted,  by 
the  solemn  act  of  consecration,  into  the  body  and 
blood,  soul  and  divinity,  of  Christ,  or,  in  other  words, 
into  Christ  himself,  as  a  sin-expiating  Saviour,  and 
offered  on  the  altar  as  a  sacrifice  for  the  actual  sins  of 
mankind,  by  the  talismanic  maneuvres  of  the  priest ; 
for,  according  to  the  Romish  theology,  Christ  made 
expiation  only  for  hereditary  sin,  and  thus  failing  to 
make  complete  expiation,  the  Romish  Church  has  gen- 
erously condescended  to  assume  the  philanthropic  task 
of  completing  the  sacrifice  by  the  miracle  of  tran- 
substantiation,  and  a  constantly  repeated  immolation 
of  Christ  in  the  mass. 

In  the  twenty-fourth  article  of  the  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion, the  Confessors  write:  "  We  are  unjustly  accused 
of  having  abolished  the  mass.  So  far  from  this  being 
the  case,  we  may  be  allowed  to  state,  without  the 
charge  of  boasting, — for  the  fact  is  notorious,  that  we 
observe  it  with  far  more  devoutuess  and  solemnity  than 
our  adversaries:  the  people  are  instructed  with  great 
care  and  diligence  in  respect  of  the  object  of  the  insti- 
tution of  the  Holy  Sacrament,  and  made  to  understand 
that  it  is  especially  designed  to  be  used  as  the  most 
approved  and  effectual  means  of  healing  and  tranquil- 
izing  their  wounded  and  terrified  consciences  ;  and 
thus  to  induce  them  to  attend  mass  and  participate  in 
the  communion.      Besides,  we  carcfullj^  point  out  and 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  169 

correct  tlio  erroneous  not  ions  which  generally  prevail 
on  the  subject  of  the  mass-ritual  of  the  Sacrament.  In 
the  ritual  observances  of  the  mass  wq  have  not  made 
any  material  change,  except  that  in  some  places  German 
hymns,  in  addition  to  the  Latin,  have  been  introduced, 
in  order  to  enable  us  with  more  facility  to  instruct  and 
improve  the  minds  of  the  people,  inasmuch  as  it  should 
be  the  paramount  object  of  all  religious  ceremonies 
to  enlighten  the  minds  of  the  worshipers,  both  as  to 
their  Christian  faith  and  their  sojemn  responsibili- 
ties, "etc. 

If  now  we  hear  Melanchthon,  in  the  Apology  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  we  shall  meet,  of  course,  with  a 
more  or  less  thorough  indorsement  of  the  use  of  the 
mass,  and  still  find  it  to  occupy  a  prominent  place  in 
the  creed  of  pristine  Lutheranism.  "I  observe  by 
way  of  preface,"  he  writes,  "that  we  have  not  dis- 
carded the  use  of  the  mass,  but  that  on  every  Sabbath 
and  festival  occasion  it  is  celebrated  in  our  churches, 
when  the  Lord's  Supper  is  administered  to  all  who 
desire  it,  provided  they  have  first  been  to  confession 
and  received  absolution.  Christian  exercises  in  read- 
ing, singing,  and  prayer,  etc.,  likewise  form  part  of 
the  mass-service.  We,  however,  no  longer  make  use 
of  private  masses,  but  confine  ourselves  to  such  as  are 
of  general  import,  when  it  is  customary  for  the  people 
to  commune,  and  this  practice  is  not  opposed  to  the 
commonly  received  custom  on  this  subject,"  etc. 

Both  in  the  Augsburg  Confession  and  the  Apology 
of  that  Confession,  the  Confessors  severely  condemn 
the  Iloman  Catholic  idea,  that  the  mass  has  sacrificial 

15 


170  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

or  immolative  virtue,  and  more  than  once  declare 
that  Christ  alone — not  the  oblation  or  offering  of  a 
consecrated  wafer  of  bread,  is  the  true  and  only  sin- 
offering,  not  only  for  hereditary,  but  for  all  actual  sin. 
Owing  to  the  manifold  abuses  which  marred  and  dis- 
graced the  mass-service  or  missal,  Luther  needed  but 
time  and  reflection  properly  to  recognize  and  abhor  the 
papal  institution,  in  all  its  various  deformity  and  corrup- 
tion, and  to  denounce  it  as  at  once  anti-scriptural  and 
destructive  to  the. best  interests  of  the  soul.  Accord- 
ingly, in  the  Schmalkald  Articles,  just  seven  years 
after  the  presentation  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  he 
peremptorily  rejected  it  as  an  institution  entirely  de- 
void of  Divine  authority,  and  therefore,  though  not 
without  some  redeeming  traits,  a  mere  human  device, 
for  which  a  scriptural,  and  hence  a  much  better  sub- 
stitute might  be  introduced.  The  fact  is,  the  mass 
nourished  and  perpetuated  the  grossest  superstition ; 
it  had  virtually  become  a  brokers'  institute,  and,  as 
such,  a  fruitful  means  of  gulling  the  people  and  en- 
riching the  priests.  But  let  us  hear  the  Reformer 
himself:  "Let  the  people,"  says  he,  "be  publicly 
taught  that  the  mass — as  a  pageant  of  human  inven- 
tion— may,  without  sin  or  detriment,  be  omitted  ;  that 
none  will  be  subjected  to  censure  or  inconvenience  for 
neglecting  it ;  and  that  we  may  be  saved  without  it  in 
a  manner  not  adverse  to,  but  compatible  with,  the 
spirit  and  aim  of  Christianity.  Js^o  doubt,  by  simply 
and  steadily  pursuing  this  prudent  course,  the  mass — 
as  it  deserves,  will  soon  fall  into  desuetude,  not  only 
among  uneducated  people,  but  also  among  the  intelli- 


TTIE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  \>i\ 

gent,  tlio  pious.  Christian,  and  God-fear in.u-  part  of  tlio 
community.  Kspeciall}'  will  this  be  the  case  if  they 
are  told  that  it  is  an  institution  fraught  with  great  peril 
to  the  soul,  destitute  of  the  sanction  of  God's  word, 
and  of  purely  human  origination."  He  adds  :  "Inas- 
much, therefore,  as  the  institution  of  the  mass  is  simply 
of  human  device,  and  includes  among  its  originators 
great  knaves,  who  sought  *to  use  it  as  a  means  of 
obtaining  Divine  mercy,  and  thus  exi)iating  their  own 
sins;  and  as  this  and  nothing  else  was  the  primary 
end  for  which  the  mass  has  been  instituted,  it  merits 
the  unreserved  rejection  and  condemnation  of  the 
Christian." 

What  the  mass  is  in  its  fully-developed  enormity 
and  height  of  blasphemous  pretensions,  the  follow- 
ing communications  will  demonstrate.  In  the  w^ork 
entitled  "A  Synopsis  of  Dens'  Moral  Theologj^  Pre- 
pared for  the  Use  of  Romish  Seminaries  and  Students 
of  Theology,"  translated  from  the  Latin  by  Doctor 
Berg,  we  read  on  page  414  what  the  canons  of  the 
Council  of  Trent  decree  concerning  the  sacrifice  of  the 
mass:  "Whoever  shall  say  that  in  the  mass  there  is 
not  offered  to  God  a  true  and  proper  sacrifice,  or  that 
Christ's  being  offered  is  nothing  else  but  his  being 
given  to  us  to  be  eaten,  let  him  be  accursed.  Who- 
ever shall  say  that  by  these  words,  Do  this  in  remem- 
brance of  me,  Christ  did  not  appoint  the  Apostles  as 
priests,  or  that  he  did  not  ordain  tliat  they  and  other 
priests  should  offer  his  body  and  blood,  let  him  be 
accursed.  Whoever  shall  say  that  the  sacrifice  of  the 
mass  is  merely  an  ofTering  of  praise  and  thanks,  or 


172  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

a  simple  commemoration  of  the  sacrifice  performed 
on  the  cross,  and  not  propitiatory;  or  that  it  is  of 
benefit  only  to  the  recipient,  and  that  it  ought  not  to 
be  offered  for  the  living  and  the  dead,  for  sins,  pen- 
ances, satisfactions,  and  other  necessaries,  let  him  be 
accursed,"  etc. 

The  subjoined  portraiture  of  this  sinful  and  odious 
institution,  by  the  author  quoted  on  page  16T,  will  serve 
to  throw  additional  light  upon  its  unreasonableness  as 
well  as  unbiblical  character  and  hurtful  tendency.  "  The 
sacrament  of  the  eucharist  or  last  supper,"  says  this 
writer,  "  is  especially  dwelt  upon  at  unusual  length,  and 
propped  by  a  host  of  arguments, — some  taken  from 
Scripture,  others  from  tradition,  others  from  revelations 
made  by  some  departed  saints  to  some  monks  in  this 
world,  and  not  a  few,  from  miracles  performed  to  give 
testimony  of  its  institution  in  the  sense  in  which  it  is 
understood  by  Roman  Catholics.  It  is  well  known  to 
every  one — or  if  it  is  not,  it  should  be  known,  in  order 
to  judge  of  the  value  of  an  anathema,  that  the  Council 
of  Trent  anathematizes  every  one  who  will  dare  say 
that  in  the  sacrament  of  the  altar — thus  the  last  sup- 
per is  called,  *  there  is  not  really  present  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ.'  Roman  Catholics  believe,  therefore, 
that  after  the  words  of  consecration — according  to  the 
missal  or  mass-ritual,  *  hoc  est  corpus  meum,'  this  is 
my  body — pronounced  by  the  priest,  the  whole  sub- 
stance of  the  bread  is  changed  into  the  body  of  Christ, 
and  likewise,  that  the  whole  substance  of  the  wine  is 
changed  into  his  blood  after  the  consecrating  words 
'hie  est  calix  sanguinis  mei,'  etc.,  this  is  the  cup  of 


THE  LORD'S  SUrPE/L  173 

my  blood.  It  is  evident  that  iiotliing  can  be  more  con- 
tradictory to  Scripture  or  to  common  sense  than  this 
doctrine ;  the  words  '  this  is  my  body,'  *  this  is  my 
blood,'  being  mere  figurative  expressions,  as  any  one 
may  perceive  who  is  not  blinded  by  ignorance  and 
superstition.  Besides,  such  a  transubstantiatiou  — 
change  of  the  bread  and  wine  into  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ,  is  so  opposite  to  the  testimony  of  our  senses, 
as  completely  to  undermine  the  whole  proof  of  all  the 
miracles  by  which  God  has  confirmed  revelation.  By 
it  the  same  body  is  alive  and  dead  at  one  and  the  same 
moment,  and  may  be  in  a  million  different  places,  whole 
and  entire,  at  the  same  instant  of  time  ;  while  part  of 
Christ's  body  is  also  made  equal  to  the  whole,  etc. 

"  On  the  belief,  that  the  sacrament  contains  the  real 
and  very  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  is  founded  the  sac- 
rifice of  the  mass,  as  it  is  styled,  by  which  they — the 
priests,  get  their  subsistence,  and  in  which  they  offer 
Christ  as  a  victim  for  the  sins  of  the  living  and  the 
dead.  Although  *  Christ^ — if  the  Apostles  were  not 
mistaken — '  was  once  offered — without  need  to  be 
offered  again — to  bear  the  sins  of  many,''  and  though 
'  we  are  sanctified  through  the  offering  of  the  body  of 
Jesus  Christ  once  for  alW  Hebrews,  ix.  28,  x.  10, 
yet  he  is  sacrificed  a  hundred  thousand  times  every 
day  throughout  the  Roman  Catholic  world,  and  three 
hundred  thousand  times  on  the  day  held  in  commemo- 
ration of  his  birth  :  there  being  three  masses  celebrated 
by  every  priest  on  Christmas-day.  This  computation 
is  made  upon  the  supposition  that  there  are  but  one 
hundred  thousand  popish  priests  in  the  world,  whereas 
15* 


174  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

there  are  probably  double  or  treble  that  number.  A 
hundred  thousand  Christs,  therefore,  are  made  every- 
day as  soon  as  the  words  of  consecration  are  pro- 
nounced by  the  priests ;  and  were  it  possible  to  divide 
each  particle  of  the  bread  into  a  million  separate  parts, 
and  transfer  them  to  so  many  places  apart,  there  would 
be  present  really  and  corporeally  as  many  Christs  as 
there  are  parts  in  the  particle.  A  priest,  therefore,  in 
consecrating  a  wafer,  makes  as  many  Gods  as  there  are 
infinitely  small  parts  into  which  a  consecrated  wafer 
can  be  divided  !  Xo  wonder,  then,  that  men  possessed 
of  such  extraordinary  power,  even  that  of  making  Him 
who  made  them,  should  be  held  in  such  veneration  by 
all  who  believe  in  its  reality.  To  nurture  this  belief, 
no  devices,  no  ingenuity,  are  spared  on  their  part. 
Being  unable  to  fix  the  foundation  of  the  mass  on 
Gospel  grounds,  they  must  have  recourse  to  fables  and 
lying  wonders,  to  prodigies  and  miracles,"  etc. 

While  I  have  thus  endeavored  to  exhibit  a  true  por- 
traiture of  the  Roman  Catholic  institutions  known  as 
the  mass  and  auricular  confession,  the  idea  that  in 
having  done  so  I  have  vindicated  the  Lutheran  Church 
of  this  country,  at  least,  against  the  unjust  imputation 
of  manifesting  popish  tendencies,  in  respect  to  these 
extinct  articles  of  faith,  gives  me  great  pleasure.  If  the 
Lutheran  Church,  whose  distinctive  religious  faith  is 
more  particularly  found  within  the  pages  of  the  Book 
of  Concord,  will  now  resolve  to  repudiate  the  dogma 
of  the  Heal  Presence,  which  offers  so  serious  a  barrier 
to  free  intercourse  and  mutual  co-operation  among  the 
different  branches  of  the  Church  responding  to  the 


THE  LORD'S  SUPrER.  Vlf^ 

name  of  Initlier,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  damages 
its  own  fair  fame,  in  the  judgment  of  a  large  and  re- 
spectable portion  of  its  fellow-citizens,  it  cannot  fail  to 
increase  its  prosperity,  while  it  extends  its  reputation, 
and  thus — as  to  numbers,  efficiency,  and  usefulness, 
deservedly  secure  to  it  a  rank  in  the  religious  world  as 
enviable  as  it  must  be  exalted ! 


1Y6  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 


THE  BOGTRINE  OF  TEE  REAL  PRESENCE,  IN  THE 
LORD'S  SUPPER,  WAS  THE  CAUSE  OF  SOME  TROUBLE 
IN  THE  EARLY  LUTHERAN  CHURCH.  THE  SOURCE 
OF  THIS  TROUBLE— WANT  OF  RELIGIOUS  TOLERA- 
TION. % 


Religious  toleration,  in  the  era  of  the  Eeformation, 
was  little  understood,  and  seldom  practiced.  Con- 
ferences convoked,  of  interviews  appointed,  for  the 
laudable  purpose  of  reconciling  conflicting  views  of 
faith,  not  unfrequentlv  resulted  in  only  widening  the 
breach  between  the  contending  parties,  whose  passions, 
by  such  well-meant  measures,  were  often  only  the  more 
inflamed,  while  their  prejudices  grew  more  inveterate. 
In  this  there  is  nothing  surprising  or  even  remarkable; 
for,  generally,  one  individual  thinks  he  has  as  good  a 
right  to  his  convictions  as  another,  though  it  must  be 
conceded  that  the  convictions  of  one  person  may  be 
more  reasonable,  and,  therefore,  more  tenable,  than 
those  of  another.  From  the  very  nature  of  the  human 
constitution,  it  is  impossible  for  all  men  to  think  and 
act  alike,  and  the  only  available  means  that  suggests 
itself  to  the  reflecting  mind,  to  live  in  peace  and  har- 
mony, is  to  have  it  mutually  understood  that  every 
one  shall  be  freely  allowed  to  believe  as  God  gives  him 
grace,  without  the  risk  of  subjecting  him  to  censure  or 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  If^ 

hostility  from  bis  nciu^Iibor.  To  realize  tliis  end — the 
paramount  i)rerogative  of  man,  distinctive  human 
creeds,  sanctioned  and  enforced  by  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority, must  be  absolutely  abolished,  and  the  Bible 
alone  adoj)ted  as  common  ground  of  faith  and  bond  of 
fellowship.  This  is  the  recognized  Protestant  and  only 
true  principle  of  Christian  brotherhood;  but,  alas!  in 
practice  it  has  never,  or  but  in  embryo,  except  in 
apostolic  times,  been  carried  out:  this  the  wide  extent 
and  sadly  disintegrated  state  of  religious  partyism 
clearly  demonstrates,  as  it  everywhere  among  us  most 
forcibly  attests  the  impotence  and  futility  of  its  agency 
under  existing  circumstances,  mainly  the  result  of 
spiritual  pride  and  sinful  egotism. 

"  The  leading  principle  of  the  Reformation,"  writes 
Doctor  Haweis,  the  ecclesiastical  historian,  "  that  the 
Bible  alone  contains  the  religion  of  Protestants,  which 
every  man  is  to  read  and  consider,  and  thence  alone  to 
draw  all  the  articles  of  his  faith  and  practice ;  and  that 
nothing  is  binding  upon  the  conscience  but  what  is 
there  clearly  revealed,  or  necessarily  deducible  from 
the  Scripture  declarations.  These  are  generally  ad- 
mitted principles ;  but  the  Protestant  Churches  have 
severally  differed  in  the  application  of  some  of  them, 
and  manifested  a  most  blamable  bigotry  and  severity 
towards  their  brethren  in  enforcing  their  own  inter- 
pretations of  the  Scriptures ;  and  that,  oftentimes,  ac- 
cording to  their  own  acknowledgments,  in  matters  not 
essential  to  salvation."* 

*  Doctor  Ilawcis,  having  commented  with  much  just  severity  on 
priestly  intolerance  and  presumption,  thus  concludes:  "Ye  followers 


l^jS  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

This  precious  Protestant  principle,  recognizing  the 
Bible  as  the  only  directorial  authority — the  norma 
normans,  in  matters  of  faith  and  life,  and,  therefore, 
granting  to  all  alike  the  privilege  of  appealing  to  it  in 
the  last  instance — Luther  fully  admitted,  though  he 
seems  to  have  laid  more  stress  upon  human  authority 
in  the  later,  than  in  the  earlier  period  of  his  reform- 
atory career.  "  When,  at  the  Diet  at  Worms,  the 
Chancellor  of  Treves,  spokesman  of  the  Diet,  said 
angrily  to  Luther,"  writes  D'Aubigne,  "You  have  not 
given  any  answer  to  the  inquiry  put  to  you :  you  are 
not  to  question  the  decisions  of  the  Councils,  you  are 
required  to  return  a  clear  and  distinct  answer ;  will 
you,  or  will  you  not  retract  ?  Luther  then  answered, 
unhesitatingly,  Since  your  most  Serene  Majesty  and 
your  High  Mightinesses  require  of  me  a  simple,  clear, 
and  direct  answer,  I  will  give  one,  and  it  is  this :  I 
cannot  submit  my  faith  either  to  the  Pope  or  to  the 
Councils,  because  it  is  as  clear  as  noonday  that  they 
have  often  fallen  into  error,  and  even  into  glaring 
inconsistency  with  themselves.  If,  then,  I  am  not  con- 
vinced by  proof  from  Holy  Scripture,  or  by  cogent 
reasons ;  if  I  am  not  satisfied  by  the  very  texts  that 
I  have  cited  ;  and  if  my  judgment  is  not  in  this  way 
brought  into  subjection  to  God's  word,  I  neither  can 
nor  will  retract  anything;  for  it  cannot  be  right  for 
a  Christian  to  speak  against  his  conscience.  Then 
turning  a  look  on  that  assembly  before  which  he  stood, 

of  tlie  meek  and  lowly  Jesus,  mark  the  man  that  hates  and  injures 
his  brother  for  his  opinions  :  he  is  a  murderer,  in  whatever  church 
he  is  found !" 


THE  Lonrrs  suppfj!.  it9 

and  wliicli  hold  in  its  hands  his  life  or  doatli,  he  said  : 
I  stand  ii<.'rc  and  can  say  no  more  ;  God  hel[)  nic  I 
A  men." 

This  was,  withont  doubt,  the  most  sublime  and 
manly  pleading  in  behalf  of  liberty  of  conscience,  as 
well  as  the  most  noble  and  undaunted  appeal  to  the 
Bible,  as  the  only  normative  religious  authority,  ever 
attempted  by  man.  But  did  the  heroic  Reformer 
uudeviatingly  practice  these  exalted  Christian  princi- 
ples, thus  fearlessly  and  admirably  asserted  in  the 
presence  of  this  august  assembly,  distinguished  no 
less  for  its  learning  and  power  than  for  the  splendor 
and  magnificence  of  its  rank  ?  Not  always.  In  this, 
however,  he  was  far  from  being  singular  ;  for — with 
perhaps  few  exceptions,  his  zealous  coadjutors  in 
the  laudable  work  of  the  Reformation  were  as  ready 
to  refer  to  the  Bible,  as  the  source  and  index  of  our 
faith,  as  their  illustrious  leader,  while,  like  him,  they 
sometimes  set  up  mere  human  opinions  as  the  ultimate 
standard  of  truth,  thus  reversing  in  practice  what  in 
theory  they  abhorred  and  condemned.  A  few,  aniong 
many  instances,  will  justify  the  assertion. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence  in  the  Lord's 
Supper  gave  the  first  impulse  to  the  spirit  of  discord 
and  resistance  among  the  Reformers,  and  proved  to  be 
one  of  the  main  causes  of  the  schism  which  still  dis- 
tracts the  Protestant  Church.*  The  literal  interpre- 
tation of  the  words  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  This  is  my 


*  The  Calvinistic  view  of  the  Lord's  Supper  tends  to  schism  no 
less  than  the  dogma  of  the  Real  Presence  ;  for  its  basis  is  as  little 
scriptural,  while  its  imiiurt  is  uo  Icss  uuiutelligiblo. 


180  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

body ;  this  is  my  blood,  could  not  but  prove  a  stumb- 
ling-block to  all  who,  in  conformity  to  a  universally 
admitted  mode  of  speech  and  the  dictates  of  unbiased 
reason,  recognized  a  metaphor  in  these  expressions. 
The  Literalists  had  an  undoubted  right  to  their  opin- 
ions, but  they  had,  by  no  means,  an  undoubted  right 
to  attempt  to  impose  it  upon  others,  or  to  refuse  Chris- 
tian fellowship  with  those  that  entertained  different 
views.  The  Bible,  theoretically  so  justly  honored  and 
extolled,  was,  in  a  great  measure,  supplanted  by  the 
authority  of  human  dogmas,  and,  instead  of  resorting 
to  the  former  to  explain  and  define  the  latter,  these 
were,  on  the  contrary,  employed  as  the  proper  and 
only  lawful  means  to  unfold  and  ultimately  determine 
the  sense  of  the  Bible.  Intolerance  was  the  necessary 
accompaniment  or  speedy  consequence  of  such  contra- 
dictory measures,  and  the  persecutions,  the  abuses,  and 
heart-burnings,  which  now  and  then  marked  the  pro- 
gress and  cast  its  Upas  shadow  upon  the  pretensions 
of  the  Reformation,  were  neither  very  few.  nor  always 
very  light. 

The  unhappy  dispute  between  Luther  and  Carl- 
stadt,  concerning  the  Real  Presence  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  in  the  Eucharist,  was  the  sad  cause  of 
the  violent  rupture  which — to  the  disgrace  of  nascent 
Protestantism,  ended  in  the  banishment  of  the  latter, 
instigated,  it  is  affirmed,  by  his  distinguished  antago- 
nist, from  the  Electorate  of  Saxony.  The  words  of 
Haweis,  in  relation  to  this  affair,  are:  "  I  have  before 
spoken  of  Luther's  harsh  treatment  of  Carlstadt, 
whom   his  interest  with  the  Elector  drove  from  his 


THE  LORD'S  Si' mm.  igi 

native  iaiul ;  ami  wliatevcr  was  pretended  as  the  cause, 
the  real  one  may  be  found  in  their  disputes  about  the 
Eucharist." 

Schwenkfeldt,  a  Silesian  knight  and  counselor  to 
the  Duke  of  Lignitz,  a  man  of  eminent  learning  and 
unblemished  morals,  animated  by  sentiments  simi- 
lar to  those  of  Carlstadt,  had,  it  seems,  the  misfor- 
tune or  the  courage  to  differ  from  the  great  Reformer 
about  some  of  the  rites  and  doctrines  which  the  latter 
had  introduced  into  the  Church,  and  especially  about 
the  tenet  of  the  Real  Presence,  and  likewise  fell  a  vic- 
tim to  the  same  intolerant  spirit,  as  appears  from 
Mosheim,  who  thus  summarily  states  the  facts  in  the 
case :  "  This  nobleman,"  writes  the  historian,  "  sec- 
onded by  Valentine  Crantwold,  a  man  of  eminent 
learning,  who  lived  at  the  court  of  the  prince  now 
mentioned,  the  Duke  of  Lignitz, — took  notice  of  many 
things  which  he  looked  upon  as  erroneous  and  defective 
in  the  opinions  and  rites  established  by  Luther;  and, 
had  not  the  latter  been  extremely  vigilant,  as  well  as 
vigorously  supported  by  his  friends  and  adherents, 
would  undoubtedly  have  brought  about  a  consider- 
able schism  in  the  Church.  Every  circumstance  in 
Schwenkfeldt's  conduct  and  appearance  w^as  adapted  to 
give  him  credit  and  influence.  His  morals  were  pure, 
and  his  life,  in  all  respects,  exemplary.  His  exhorta- 
tions in  favor  of  true  and  solid  piety  were  warm  and 
persuasive,  and  his  principal  zeal  was  employed  in  pro- 
moting it  among  the  people.  By  this  means  he  gained 
the  esteem  and  friendship  of  many  learned  and  pious 
men,  both  in  the  Lutheran  and  Helvetic  Churches,  who 
IG 


182  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

favored  his  sentiments,  and  undertook  to  defend  him 
against  all  his  adversaries.  Notwithstanding  all  this, 
he  was  banished  bj  his  sovereign,  both  from  the  court 
and  from  his  country,  in  the  year  1528,  only  because 
Zwingle  had  approved  of  his  opinions  concerning  the 
Eucharist,  and  declared  '  that  they  did  not  differ  essen- 
tially from  his  own,'"  etc. 

At  this  critical  stage  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  the 
Lutheran  Church,  the  Crypto- Galmnisiic  troubles, 
which  had,  for  some  time,  lain  smouldering  under  the 
embers  of  persecution,  broke  out  anew  with  great  vio- 
lence, and  soon  embraced  a  wide  extent  of  territory. 
The  fastnesses  of  the  rigid  Lutherans — the  Olympus 
of  the  Amsdorffs,  the  Flacians,  the  Andreaeaus,  etc. — 
were  menaced  with  an  attack  from  the  puissant  Titans 
that  appeared  amid  the  lurid  scenes  of  strife.  With 
the  growth  and  apparent  danger  of  the  Calvinistic 
leaven,  the  cruel  spirit  of  intolerance  became  corre- 
spondingly more  wary  and  relentless,  and  it,  accord- 
ingly, put  forth  redoubled  vigor  for  the  impending  con- 
test. Anxiously  concerned  for  the  orthodoxy  of  the 
Church,  "  The  Elector  of  Saxony,"  writes  Mosheim, 
"  convened  anew  the  Saxon  doctors,  and  held,  in  the 
year  1574,  the  famous  convention  of  Torgau,  where, 
after  a  strict  inquiry  into  the  doctrines  of  those  who, 
from  their  secret  attachment  to  the  sentiments  of  the 
Swiss  divines,  were  called  Crypto-Calvinists,  he  com- 
mitted some  of  them  to  prison,  sent  others  into  ban- 
ishment, and  engaged  a  certain  number,  by  the  force 
of  the  secular  arm,  to  change  their  sentiments.  Peuccr, 
who  had  been  principally  concerned  in  moderating  the 


THE  LORD'S  SUP  PER.  183 

rigor  of  some  of  Luther's  doctrines,  felt,  in  a  more 
especial  manner,  the  dreadful  effects  of  the  Elector's 
severity.  For  he  was  confined  to  a  hard  prison,  where 
he  lay  in  the  most  affecting  circumstances  of  distress 
until  the  year  1585,  when  he  obtained  his  liberty,"  etc. 
Such  conduct  is  suggestive  of  the  warning  in  one  of 
the  stanzas  of  Pope's  "  Universal  Prayer"  : 

"Let  not  this  weak,  unknowing  hand 
Presume  thy  bolts  to  throw, 
And  deal  damnation  round  the  land 
On  each  I  judge  thy  foe." 

Peucer,  according  to  Haweis,  was  son-in-law  of 
Melanchthon,  and  a  man  distinguished  both  for  his 
learning  and  piety.  He  was  Professor  at  Wittenberg, 
and  had  formed  a  considerable  party  among  the  Saxon 
divines,  who  adopted  with  him  the  sentiments  of 
Zwinglius  respecting  the  Lord's  Supper,  which,  it  may 
be  observed,  Melanchthon,  in  his  later  years,  likewise 
embraced.  Ten  long  and  tedious  years  did  the  unjustly 
maligned  and  oppressed  disciple  of  Christ  suffer  the 
severe  hardships  of  imprisonment  on  account  of  his 
opinions,  or,  in  other  words,  for  conscience  sake, 
while  the  cruel  treatment  which  he  received  bore  evi- 
dence that  persecution,  on  account  of  religious  senti- 
ments, is  not  altogether  confined  to  the  pale  of  blood- 
stained popery. 

At  last,  to  put  an  end,  as  was  fondly  hoped,  to  the 
conflicting  views  which  agitated  and  seemed  even  to 
threaten  the  existence  of  the  Church,  and  to  secure  as 
great  a  degree  of  uniformity  in  faith  and  practice  as  it 


184  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

was  possible,  the  famous  Foinn  of  Concord  was  com- 
posed, in  order  to  strengthen  some  of  the  weaker  points 
in  the  Lutheran  creed  ;  to  elucidate  and  define  others 
with  more  care  and  precision  ;  to  give  a  more  positive 
shape  and  expression  to  its  dogmas  generally;  and, 
finally,  by  declaring  it  to  be  the  inviolable  standard  of 
true  faith,  to  impress  it  with  the  indelible  insignia  of 
perpetuity.  Thus  rigid  Lutheranism  —  as  it  was 
termed — was,  at  length,  clearly  set  forth  and  firmly 
established;  and  according  to  this  formula  of  faith, 
thus  contained  and  explained  in  the  Book  of  Concord, 
"  doctrines,"  as  it  is  stated  m  the  Introduction,  "shall 
be  adjudged,  and  whatever  is  contrary  to  the  express 
declarations  set  forth  in  it,  shall  be  rejected  and  con- 
demned." 

The  terse  and  pertinent  remarks  of  Scott  on  this 
subject,  in  his  work  entitled  "  Luther  and  the  Lutheran 
Reformation,"  deserve  to  be  here  appended:  "The 
great  principle,  that  to  God  alone,  and  not  to  his  fel- 
low-creatures, is  a  man  accountable  for  his  religious 
belief;  and  that,  so  long  as  he  conducts  himself  as  a 
peaceable  subject, — citizen, — he  is  entitled  to  the  full 
protection  of  the  magistrate, — a  principle  the  very  op- 
posite of  that  which  had  been  received  and  acted  upon 
during  the  long  reign  of  popery,  was  yet  scarcely  dis- 
covered by  here  and  there  a  scattered  individual :  and 
almost  ages  more  elapsed  before  it  was  to  any  con- 
siderable extent  proclaimed  and  admitted. 

"  It  could  not  be  expected  that  either  governments  or 
individuals  should,  in  the  age  of  the  Keformation, 
speedily  divest  themselves  of  the  system  of  persecution 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  igS 

which  flowed  from  the  maxims  of  so  many  preceding 
ages,  and  still  retained  its  hold  upon  the  mind,  even 
after  the  original  error  on  which  it  was  founded  had 
been  detected  and  renounced.  They  were  incapable  of 
at  once  tracing  to  its  just  consequences  the  discovery 
which  they  themselves  had  made.  If  other  professedly 
Christian  bodies,  not  Roman  Catholics,  long  retained 
the  persecuting  spirit,  it  was  mainly  because  they  found 
it  so  difficult  wholly  to  eradicate  the  seeds  of  in- 
struction which  they  had  received  from  the  hand  of 
popery,"  etc. 

Calvinism,  too, — likewise  still,  more  or  less,  under 
pre-Keformation  influence, — can,  by  no  means,  boast 
exemption  from  acts  of  intolerance,  as  I  shall  briefly 
demonstrate.* 

*  Servetus,  a  Spanish  physician,  a  man  of  versatile  genius,  exten- 
sive learning,  and,  as  far  as  could  be  judged,  of  sincere  piety,  who 
could  boast  the  friendship  of  many  persons  of  rank  and  influence  in 
France,  Germany,  and  Italy,  aroused  the  spirit  of  persecution  against 
himself  on  account  of  his  denial  of  the  Divinity  of  the  Saviour  ;  and 
passing  through  Switzerland,  in  order  to  seek  refuge  against  the  im- 
pending storm,  in  Italy,  his  career  was  suddenly  arrested  by  the  vigi- 
lance and  severity  of  Calvin,  "  who,"  writes  Moshcim,  "  caused  him 
to  be  apprehended  at  Geneva,  in  the  year  1553,  and  had  an  accusa- 
tion of  blasphemy  brought  against  him  before  the  Council.  The 
issue  of  this  accusation  was  fatal  to  Servetus,  who,  adhering  reso- 
lutely to  the  opinions  he  had  embraced,  was,  by  a  public  sentence  of 
the  court,  declared  an  obstinate  heretic,  and,  in  consequence  thereof, 
condemned  to  the  flames,"  etc.  Whether  the  dogma  of  the  Mystical 
Presence  of  Christ  in  the  Lord's  Supper  had  anything  to  do  with 
this  cruel  deed  it  is  hard  to  say,  but  it  is  certain  it  did  at  least  not 
prevent  it. 

In  his  "Geschichte  des  Abfalls  der  vereinigten  Nioderlando  von 
der  Spanischon  Regierung,"  that  is,  in  his  History  of  the  Revolt  of 

16* 


186  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

the  United  Provinces  of  the  Netherlands  from  the  Spanish  Govern- 
ment, Schiller  writes:  "The  cruel  oppression  of  the  Catholics,  in 
those  places  where  the  Calvinists  had  the  upper  hand,  at  length 
dispelled  the  existing  delusion  of  the  former,  and  induced  them  to 
■withhold  their  support  from  a  party  of  whose  conduct,  should  they 
continue  in  the  ascendant,  they  had  reason  to  apprehend  results 
detrimental  to  themselves." 

I  pass  on  to  the  Church  of  England,  whose  creed  is  Calvinistic,  and 
briefly  call  attention  to  the  following  facts,  taken  from  Buck's  "Theo- 
logical Dictionary."  Having  animadverted  on  the  cruel  persecutions 
of  the  Catholics  in  England,  he  adds:  "Nor  was  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth free  from  this  persecuting  spirit  of  the  Catholics.  If  any  one 
refused  to  consent  to  the  least  ceremony  in  worship,  he  was  cast  into 
prison,  where  many  of  the  most  excellent  men  in  the  land  perished. 
Two  Protestant  Anabaptists  were  burned,  and  many  banished.  She 
also,  it  is  said,  put  two  Brownists  to  death;  and  though  her  whole 
reign  was  distinguished  for  its  political  prosperity,  yet  it  is  evident 
that  she  did  not  understand  the  rights  of  conscience;  for  it  is  said 
that  more  sanguinary  laws  were  made  in  her  reign  than  in  any  of 
her  predecessors,  and  her  hands  were  stained  with  the  blood  both 
of  Papists  and  Puritans.  James  the  First  succeeded  Elizabeth  ;  he 
published  a  proclamation  commanding  all  Protestants  to  conform 
strictly,  and  without  any  exce])tion,  to  all  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of 
the  Church  of  England.  Above  five  hundred  clergymen  were  imme- 
diately silenced,  or  degraded,  for  not  complying.  Some  were  excom- 
municated, and  some  banished  the  country.  The  Dissenters  were 
distressed,  censured,  and  fined,  in  the  Star-chamber.'  Two  persons 
were  burned  for  heresy, — one  at  Smithfield,  and  the  other  at  Lichfield. 
Worn  out  with  endless  vexations  and  unceasing  persecutions,  many 
retired  into  Holland,  and  from  thence  to  America.  It  is  witnessed  by 
a  judicious  historian  that,  in  this  and  some  following  reigns,  twenty- 
two  thousand  persons  were  banished  from  England  by  persecution  to 
America." 

I  shall  omit  in  this  hasty  sketch  a  notice  of  the  dark  and  bloody 
scenes  enacted  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  First,  chiefly  at  the  insti- 
gation of  the  2^ersecuting  Laud,  a  veritable  demon  in  Iwhj  orders,  and 
observe  that  the  Presbyterians,  when  circumstances  favored  op- 
pression, did  not  altogether  refuse  to  avail  themselves  of  them. 
"  The  Presbyterians,"  writes  Buck,  "  when  their  government  came 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  187 

to  bo  cstiiblishccl  in  England,  were  not  free  from  tho  charge  of  per- 
secution. In  1045  an  ordinance  was  pul)lishc<l,  subjecting  all  who 
preached  or  wrote  against  the  Presbyterian  directory  for  ])ublic  wor- 
ship to  a  fine  not  exceeding  fifty  pounds;  and  imprisonment  for  a 
year,  for  tho  third  offence,  in  using  the  Ej)iseopal  book  of  common 
prayer,  even  in  a  private  family.  In  the  following  year  tho  Pres- 
byterians applied  to  Parliament,  pressing  them  to  cntorcG  uu if orui it  1/ 
in  religion,  and  to  extirpate  popery,  prelacy,  heresy,  schism,  etc.  j 
but  their  petition  was  rejected,"  etc. 

I  might  here  point  out  in  detail,  and  show  by  numerous  examples, 
tho  diflferencc  between  Christians  professing  perfectible  creeds  and 
those  adhering  to  unalterable  confessions  of  faith.  But  a  concise 
statement  of  facts  will  suflBce.  The  Plymouth  colony,  in  Massachu- 
setts, professed,  as  pupils  of  Robinson,  a  creed  of  the  former  kind; 
the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  preponderatingly  Calvinistic,  ono 
of  the  latter.  Tho  consequence  of  such  diversity  of  views  manifested 
itself  in  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  the  two  embryo  commonwealths: 
the  Plymouth  people  were  animated  by  a  spirit  of  long-suffering  and 
toleration,  while  those  of  Massachusetts  Bay  were  dogmatic  in  their 
opinions  and  arbitrary  in  their  religious  government.  It  seemed  as 
if  Moses  reigned  in  tho'one  place,  in  the  thunders  of  Sinai,  Christ 
in  the  other,  through  his  own  "  exceeding  riches  of  grace."  Here  was 
EQore  of  the  Bible,  there  more  of  man's  device.  Hence  the  striking 
result  !* 

Persecution,  I  may  observe,  is  natural  where  unalterable  creeds 
prevail,  and  high  mental  culture  only,  thoroughly  imbued  with  tho 
spirit  of  Christ,  will  foster  principles  of  toleration  and  stay  the  hand 
of  tho  persecutor.  As  soon  as  a  religious  association  has  attained 
tho  conviction  that  it  has  the  true  faith,  and  which  is,  therefore,  in- 

*  Treating  of  tho  Puritans,  Bnrk  observes  :  "  Tlioso  who  formed  the  colony 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  having  never  relinquisheil  the  principles  of  a  national 
church,  and  of  tho  power  of  tho  civil  magistrate  in  matters  of  faith  and 
worship,  were  less  tolerant  than  those  who  sett  led  at  New  riymouth,at  llhodo 
Island,  and  at  Providence.  The  very  men,  and  they  were  good  men  too,  who 
had  just  escaped  the  persecutions  of  tlic  English  prelates,  now,  in  their  turn, 
persecuted  others  who  dissented  from  them,  till  at  length  the  liberal  system 
of  toleration,  established  iu  the  parent  country  at  tho  Revolution,  extending 
to  tho  colonies,  in  a  good  measure  put  an  end  to  these  proceedings."  See 
aldo  Biblical  Repository  and  Quarterly  Observer  of  April,  1835. 


188  THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

susceptible  of  improvement,  so  soon  it  harbors  a  spirit  of  intolerance  ; 
for  all  that  differ  from  it  are,  of  course,  in  error  and  unfit  religious 
companions  :  in  fact,  they  are  held  to  be  churchly  unclean.  They  are 
looked  upon  as  standing  in  an  inimical  relation  to  God,  not  having 
been  divinely  inspired  as  have  been  their  amiable  judges,  and  on 
whom,  therefore,  the  heavenly  Father  cannot  smile,  because  they 
have  not — without  their  fault,  it  should  seem — the  true  doctrine, — that 
is,  do  not  believe  like  their  Shibboleth  brethren.  Such  being  the  case, 
the  inference  is, — it  is  the  bigot's  inference, — that  they  have  no  business 
to  cumber  the  ground,  but,  like  weeds  among  the  wheat,  must  be  pulled 
up  and  cast  out.  Saints  and  sinners,  what  fellov?ship  can  they  have  ? 
Yet  it  may  be  the  latter  are  God-fearing,  while  the  former,  with 
complaisant  mien  and  sluggard  souls,  are  content  with  the  lip-service 
of  a  ritualistic  "Lord,  Lord  !" 

Alas,  under  similar  circumstances,  there  are  few  men  that  would  not 
light  the  diabolical  torch  of  persecution  !  Instead,  therefore,  of  con- 
demning such  religious  aberration  of  a  past  age  as  evidence  simply 
of  extreme  baseness  of  character,  we  should  thank  God  for  the  supe- 
rior biblical  and  scientific  light  which  illumines  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury; and  while  we  deplore  the  wrongs  and  sufferings  which  an 
intolerant  spirit,  incidental,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  only  to  former  ages, 
has  inflicted  upon  mankind  for  opinion's  sake,  let  us  cast  the  broad 
mantle  of  Christian  charity  over  the  grim  record  of  the  bloody  scene. 


THE  LORD'S  SUrrER,  J39 


TUB  APPEAL  IN  BEHALF  OF  THE  BIBLE  AND  OF  OUR 
COUNTRY. 


God,  my  fcllow-citizenp,  ppcaks  to  us  in  the  Bible, 
and  should  we  not  hear  him  ?  Should  we  not  hasten  to 
learn  of  him  what  is  7??.s- will,  and  in  what  consists  o?(r 
duty  ?  Where  the  Bible  is,  there  is  light :  we  are 
God-taught,  and  free  to  w^orship  according  to  the  dic- 
tates of  our  consciences;  w^here   it   is  not,    there   is 

spiritual  darkness,  and  its  inevitable   consequence, 

hierarchical  tyranny.  These  truths  are  well  understood 
and  appreciated  by  the  Catholic  Church  of  this  coun- 
try. Hence,  to  acquire  absolute  dominion  over  you, 
they  use  every  means  in  their  power  to  banish  the 
Bible  from  our  common  schools,  and,  having  succeeded, 
it  will  soon  be  ejected  from  our  homes  and  our  altars. 
Can  you  contemplate  with  sinful  indifference  this  foul 
attempt  to  rob  you  of  the  God-given  treasure — the 
Bible,  and  then,  thus  robbed,  pass  into  the  spiritual 
slavery  of  papal  despotism,  more  to  be  deprecated  than 
war,  famine,  or  pestilence?  Arouse  yourselves,  my 
countrymen,  and  when  the  time  comes — and  it  wmII  not 
be  either  long  or  slow  in  coming — that  shall  "  try  men's 
souls",  and  decide  the  future  destiny  of  the  Republic, 
take  your  stand  with  the  souls  of  Christian  heroes  on 


190  THE  DOCTRINE   OF 

Bible  ground, — it  is  holy  ground, — and  let  your  sacred 
battle-cry  be,  Liberty  or  Death  !  Do  you,  now  and 
then,  call  to  mind,  my  fellow-citizens,  that  you  possess 
a  country  unsurpassed  in  material  resources,  in  the 
grandeur  and  variety  of  its  scenery,  and  especially  in 
its  free  and  noble  institutions,  the  pride  of  the  nation, 
the  gift  of  God  and  of  the  illustrious  heroes  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution, — our  slavery-hating,  freedom-loving , 
our  thrice  great  and  glorious  ancestors?  Ah,  what 
hardships  did  they  not  endure,  what  blood  and  treas- 
ure did  they  not  expend,  in  the  sacred  cause  of  civil 
and  religious  liberty  I  Look  around  the  wide  world  : 
"  taken  for  all  in  all,"  you  will  not  find  a  country  so 
blessed,  so  distinguished  for  all  the  elements  necessary 
to  exalt  a  nation, — to  make  it  great  and  happy.  While 
you  pray  to  the  Giver  of  all  good  gifts  that  you  may 
ever  have  a  Bible, — open  and  free  to  all,  as  well  as  the 
touchstone  of  the  faith  of  all, — pray  also  often  and  fer- 
vently for  your  country,  that  it  may  always  be  independ- 
ent, always  free,  always  prosperous.  Take  heed,  I 
beseech  you,  that  political  demagogues  do  not  tamper 
with  your  civil  rights,  or  Jesuits,  by  their  insidious  arts, 
undermine  the  nation's  holy  institutions,  amid  which 
the  Star-spangled  Banner  still  waves  "  over  the  land  of 
the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave."  Sing  too  of 
your  country ;  let  the  individual,  let  the  family,  let  the 
nation  join,  in  one  universal  chorus  of  freedom-inspired, 
freedom-defending  patriots,  in  chanting  the  national 
anthem  of  freedom, — the  death-song  to  tyrants,  the  pean 
of  the  free-born.     Hark,  they  sing — God  bless  them  ; 


THE  LORD'S  SUrPER. 

"My  country,  'tis  of  thco, 
Sweet  land  of  liberty, 

Of  thco  I  sing; 
Land  where  my  fathers  died. 
Land  of  the  Pilgrims'  pride, 
From  every  mountain's  side 
Let  freedom  ring. 

"  My  native  country  !  thco, 
Land  of  the  noble  free. 

Thy  name  I  love  ; 
I  love  thy  rocks  and  rills, 
Thy  woods  and  templed  hills  ; 
My  heart  with  rapture  thrills 
Like  that  above. 

"Let  music  swell  the  breeze, 
And  ring  from  all  the  trees. 

Sweet  freedom's  song  ; 
Let  mortal  tongues  awake, 
Let  all  that  breathe  partake  j 
Let  rocks  their  silence  break. 
The  sound  prolong. 

"  Our  fathers'  God !  to  thco, 
Author  of  liberty  ! 

To  thee  we  sing; 
Long  may  our  land  bo  bright 
"With  freedom's  holy  light; 
Protect  us  by  thy  might. 

Great  God  our  King  !"    Amen. 


THE  END. 


191 


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